Unholy Acts

History is littered with unholy acts. Many of them carried out to either please or appease the Gods. From the very earliest times something made mankind to become spiritual, superstitious and interested in the stars.

Why would there be such a fascination in the stars? It is logical that the moon would be important for reasons of measurement of time and probably tide, but the majority of today’s population have little interest in the stars (most can’t see them for pollution), so is it logical to assume everyone in the past ‘knew their stars’? The stars became important for seafarers.

When the fates are against you, superstition ruled there had to be a reason other than your own failings or simple bad luck, so creating a niche market for someone to invent the idea of someone of thing manipulating things.  There was considerable benefit to be in communication with the gods.

Those seven (deadly) sins manifested early on and there developed an element of distrust and suspicion. The link between luck, suspicion and the gods, breeds superstition because if certain circumstances produce favourable outcomes, then those same circumstances will surely work again, likewise for unfavourable outcomes.

Pleasing the gods became an important thing to do. Actually this was a bit of trickery on the part of the communicator and somewhere along the line, it was decided the gods liked blood sacrifices, sometimes human blood. Maybe the cultures were bloodthirsty anyway, but they seemed to have acquiesced with the communicator [maybe a priest/priestess]

Most cultures were on the bandwagon and some of them were particularly bloodthirsty, of note was the re-consecration of an Aztec pyramid where 80 400 were sacrificed.

Maybe it paid to become sexually active at an early age because many of the sacrifices were of virgins, but all manner of categories were thought up to slaughter from the new-born to nursing mothers.

Gradually communities saw the light and human sacrifices faded out. Whether the priest figured out that he wasn’t actually communicating with a deity, they ran out of sacrifice candidates, or the communities said ‘enough’ is immaterial, collectively it was civilization.

Civilization seems not to have been much protection because ‘legal’ killing became almost an art form and the killers obviously enjoyed their gruesome tasks.

Despite the onset of civilization, there were the wars, so many of them – civil, territory, religion, and retribution – all sorts of reasons. Starting off by hacking each other to death, and poking or shooting pointed things into each other. The aftermath was horrific and if you weren’t dead, patching you up probably made you wish you were.

The invention and refining of gunpowder didn’t improve things, sometimes the carnage was even worse.

Despite the small advances in civilization there were plenty of excuses for large scale killings. In all cases there was the instigator [or group], who came up with the idea that another group needed to be wiped out and they had their henchmen who carried out the dirty deeds enjoying the power and any of the spoils that went with it.

There are numerous historical records of killings carried out within a country in the quest for power and it is staggering to research some of them. 700 000 shot on the back of the head!

Of course most were in the name of something – communism, Cultural Revolution, politics.

The 600 year long inquisition where other branches of Christianity were tortured or put to death as ‘heretics’ makes the longevity of the others seem insignificant, but at least with the inquisition there was a hearing, the others wiped out people very quickly.

Not forgetting what the perpetrators of what they called ‘ethnic cleansing’! There are more recent examples of genocide and the same ruthless disregard for life was/is apparent as occurred in those early days of sacrifice. 

Sooner or later all of the above atrocities came to an end, often with the demise of the instigator.

Generally there was a turnaround of thinking and the atrocities ceased, sometimes the leader was removed [killed] or neighboring countries stepped in. Other times wars were lost and the perpetrators capitulated.

It is reasonable to expect therefore that the current mobs rampaging and committing atrocities of the ancients in the name of their faith should be hauled in by moderates from within. As it is world opinion is turning against them and when that happens there is no discretion – all are lumped as one.

In the west, civilization is such that through political correctness, there is not the willingness to speak out and being accused of racism.

Accusation or not, the truth is the truth.