Human Sacrifice; A Religious Right

“Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.'" (Genesis 22:1-2). When one thinks of human sacrifice as in relation to religion, the most often-cited example is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is asked by god to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to him. To prove his faith, Abraham attempts to. God only stops him at the last moment, impressed by Abraham’s show of devotion. Religion is something that is practiced solely out of faith. To have faith is to believe in what cannot be seen or heard, what cannot be held; a belief that is not based on proof. The bible describes the Christian god as more of a present being, but to the Aztec, their gods were spiritual. Abraham had the voice of god to tell him that sacrifice was not what he truly wished but what if there was no presence there to stop him? For the Aztec there were no voices. They had developed the idea that their purpose on earth was to appease the gods for all that they had given them, and that is life. That being said, the most logical way to repay them for the life they had given is to give it back, bringing the Aztec upon human sacrifice. The number of lives taken by their people is unknown, however what is known, is that the number is much larger would care to believe. The Aztec, as Abraham had prepared himself to do, sacrificed themselves out of devotion to the gods.
The Aztec sacrifice of humans was attributed to religion, but in what aspect of religion is it said to give your own life to repay christ? (The Aztec felt worship to hundreds of gods opposed to christianity where there is but one) Legend has it the creation of the earth was not an easy task, created only to be destoyed time after time. The fifth and final creation was that of the planet as we know it, sustained only by the sacrifice of all gods so that we as humans could live. The Aztec felt a blood-debt that had to be repayed, similar to an eye for an eye, but in their case, a life for a life. The story is that a god gave himself to become the sun, a sun that was unable to move without the bloodshed of the others. And so, the sun began a never-ending battle against darkness, a battle ending in an unavoidable loss. The Aztec believed that so long as the sacrifices were made, the sun would rise another day. It was the sun who not only required blood sacrifice in order to win the battle against darkness, but actual sacrifice as well. Those who were sacrificed would rise to the sky to assist in the constant fight against the darkness. This only added extra incentive to the Aztec as the greater the number of sacrifices, the better the protection for the sun, the longer they could postpone the end of their existence. The sacrifice of humans was not out of grattitude to the gods, but out of fear; fear that defiance would result in the destruction of everything they had been given.
“Abuse of the innocent is a matter of freewill, a matter of choice but those who would be your victims are volunteers.” (http://www.divineadvancedhumanbeings.com/the-mechanics-of-sacrifice/) If given the choice between life or death, most would choose life, and the same applies in the case of afterlife. Aztec people held a strong belief in a life after life, especially under sacrifcial circumstances. It was said that the sacrifice would rise to join the sun in it’s battle against darkness, granting them eternal life, or the Aztec’s idea of it. This concept contributed a great amount to the fact that sacrifices were not taken kicking and screaming against their will, but surrendered quite willingly. With the benefits the sacrifice received also came emense amounts of pain and suffering. It was because of this that all sacrificial ceremonies were handled the same way, be it willing or not willing. The people of the city gathered to watch the ritual as if it were a celebration, and to them it was. The sacrifice of another meant one more day that the sun would rise, and all would remain. The ceremony could only be preformed by preists, the human the Aztec considered to be the closest to the gods. Four were needed, each to hold the person down to the stone slab while their heart was carved out their chest. The still beating heart was taken and held up towards the sun as if to show the gods that it had been done for them. The Aztec believed that a live heart was the best sacrifice to offer, providing the most nutrients for the gods. The limp body was taken from the alter and pushed from the top of the temple steps down to the bottom.
Warfare was not taught, but engrained into the heads of the Aztec people. If a boy had not fought already, he was in training. A boy was not able to achieve manhood until he had captured his first prisoner. The ability to capture a prisoner was without a doubt the most valued skill in the Aztec military as prisoners meant sacrifice. It was because of this that warfare quickly became a vital part of Aztec culture. The more captives that could be taken from battle, the less of their own that had to be sacrificed to the gods. The Aztec would seek out war and the Tlaxcalans were their target. An agreement had been made that they would hold ritual battles between the two not to gain land or conquer but for the sole purpose of taking prisoners, these by the name of flower wars. The object of the Aztec warriors was to hit the enemies by their legs, disabling them they could be taken as prisoners. The captives taken during these wars were always given a choice between sacrifice or death, most willingly choosing sacrifice. The Aztec gave the prisoners the right to chose between the two and respected their wishes. The soldiers taken back with them were treated as royalty as they were a crutial piece to the sacrificial ceremony. The sacrifice of prisoners was used not only to bring satisfaction to the gods, but to strike fear into the hearts of any other opponents. It was not those who had cooperated with the Aztec that had anything to fear, it was the enemy to whom they would not play so nice. Their mentality was to frighten their enemies enough to put an end to the battle before it even began, and if that didn’t work, they had proven that they had no problem with violence. “Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.'" (Genesis 22:1-2). Abraham had a voice to tell him that sacrifice was not what his god truly wished but what if there was no presence there to stop him? For the Aztec there were no voices. They had developed the idea that their purpose on earth was to appease the gods for all that they had given them, and that is life. That being said, the most logical way to repay them for the life they had given is to give it back, leading the Aztec to human sacrifice. “Human sacrifice, practiced by most other Mesoamericans, had become the central rite of Aztec religion.” (Honour and Fleming 5).

References

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Newman, G. (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited.