Isn't killing wild animals just for religious reasons meaningless & senseless?

[Tyrannoraptor]

Wouldn't it be unnecessary, meaningless, and senseless for mankind to slaughter wild or pet animals (esp if it were inhumane) and maybe put them (esp wild animals) to the brink of extinction (esp if it were the modern days) just for religious reasons (like for example: ritual sacrifice) and the sake of God (if God and the afterlife or maybe human souls never existed or may not be real)?

[seismic-2]

It is meaningless and senseless if you do not believe in that particular religion. If you do believe in it, then it is meaningful and sensible. This same principle of course applies to a host of religious rituals, not just those that involve killing animals.

[MyriVerse]

Senseless? Yes. Absolutely and objectively.
Meaningless? Nah. I suppose it has meaning to those that do it.

[PaulBullion]

Which active religion sacrifices wild animals?

Aren't farmed animals usually used these days? Animals bred for that specific purpose?

[Powerboy]

Wouldn't it be unnecessary, meaningless, and senseless for mankind to slaughter wild or pet animals (esp if it were inhumane) and maybe put them (esp wild animals) to the brink of extinction (esp if it were the modern days) just for religious reasons (like for example: ritual sacrifice) and the sake of God (if God and the afterlife or maybe human souls never existed or may not be real)?

Well, if it made sense and had any meaning in reality, it wouldn't be religious.

It makes sense only if you believe there is a god or are gods who want animals sacrificed to them, maybe because it's a way of kissing their butts when they are not busy creating and maintaining galaxies, stars and atoms.

The "reality" is that we are mostly talking about Bronze Age people who had no comprehension of how tribal, prehistoric and absurd this would all look thousands of years later. I'm not really making fun of them so much as that people still hang onto stuff like that, at least in terms of justifying it historically as if some god or gods really decreed this stuff.

But, let's be fair. There was a time when everything was magical. What other explanation was there? If a prehistoric man saw a cloud moving the same direction he was, did he think the cloud could think (because he could think) and that it was moving of it's own will (because he was)?

Also, the earliest animal sacrifices, if we go with studies of extremely primitive cultures in more recent times, were probably a way of thanking nature or the spirits or the gods for providing food, a way of "giving back and honoring" to their way of thinking which, in and of itself, is kind of a superior mentality if only in the sense of realizing this isn't some entitlement (I don't mean that in the legal or political sense) but something that could as easily not be there.

[Tyrannoraptor]

It is meaningless and senseless if you do not believe in that particular religion. If you do believe in it, then it is meaningful and sensible. This same principle of course applies to a host of religious rituals, not just those that involve killing animals.

But i thought it might be meaningless and senseless for wild animals (esp endangered species) to get killed inhumanely just because of a superstitious belief.

[Powerboy]

But i thought it might be meaningless and senseless for wild animals (esp endangered species to get killed inhumanely just because of a superstitious belief.

In other news, water is wet.

[Starter Set]

If you want to kill something cause your imaginary friend told you so, what about trowing yourself from a bridge instead of killing animals eh?

Somehow i think that if it was the rule then a lot less people would feel religious all of a sudden.

[Kirby101]

I think more wild animals are killed to the brink of extinction because of nonsensical folk medicine "cures". Or for the vanity of people, like rhino horns and elephant tusks. Not sure which religions have killed wild animals to extinction? Sacrificing in the name of religion itself is pretty stupid. If any God is so powerful they can bring good fortune on a people for a sacrifice, they could kill the damn animal themselves.

[Moon Ronin]

But i thought it might be meaningless and senseless for wild animals (esp endangered species to get killed inhumanely just because of a superstitious belief.

I know a few years back there was a Native American tribe in Wyoming or Montana that killed a bald eagle. I don't think the bald eagle classified as endangered any more but is federally protected. I can't really think of an instance were an endangered animal is killed in a religious rite, do you have any examples?

In other news, water is wet.

Water is not wet it makes things wet. Wetness is the ability of a liquid to adhere to the surface of a solid and some times air, so when we say that something is wet, we mean that the liquid is sticking to the surface of a material.