Sam Harris

JERUSALEM (AP)—A fringe group of extremist rabbis wants to resume the biblical practice of animal sacrifice at an explosive religious site in Jerusalem, members said Wednesday.

The request defied centuries of religious bans and triggered a stiff protest from a Muslim leader.

When the Jewish Temples stood in the Old City of Jerusalem more than 2,000 year ago, animal sacrifice was a centerpiece of the religion. After the destruction of the Temples, sacrifices were banned and rabbinical teachings took their place as the focus of Judaism.

Now a group, called the "Re-established Sanhedrin" after the Temple-era religious high court, has decided to buy some sheep and try to find one that is ritually perfect for sacrifice, with an eye toward resuming the practice at the Jerusalem site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The site is the most hotly disputed in the Middle East, home today to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Israel captured the site in the 1967 war and turned day-to-day control over to the Muslim Religious Council, but Palestinians take the Jewish fringe groups seriously.

"Regrettably, there are many extremist Israeli groups who want to carry out their plans," said Jerusalem's senior Islamic cleric, Mohammed Hussein. "Let them say what they want, Al Aqsa is a Muslim mosque."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/28/israel.animal.ap/index.html

Well they can also go back in the caves if they like .... …as long as they REMAIN there and NEVER come back 8)

….the “Re-established Cavemen” 

This is strange, impractical, costly, and just cruel.

However, these guys are on the winning side of the theological argument. YHWH expressly says (on more than one occasion) that he likes animal sacrifices, and that people should do them regularly.

Anyone who see’s the Torah as the literal perfect word of god should agree with these guys.

What an abomination. Just wait till the animal rights activists hear about this. The Jews and the Arabs should limit themselves to sacrificing each other.

Stay Well
Wot

[quote author=“Wotansson”]What an abomination. Just wait till the animal rights activists hear about this. The Jews and the Arabs should limit themselves to sacrificing each other.

Stay Well
Wot

I agree that it is an “abomination”, although, ironically, literally it is anything but an abomination, since God has ordered it. 

This is just what the world needs—the spilling of more innocent blood.  And for what?  It is sad that people living in 2007 are actually longing to bring back such ancient barbaric rituals. 

And yes, it is cruel.  It is needlessly cruel.  Most people don’t care about animal suffering and cruelty to animals, but I do.  It is morally reprehensible to cause unnecessary suffering.  And this is once more a reminder of why religion and its irrationality should not be tolerated.  These believers probably feel that animal sacrifices are not *unnecessary* suffering; since God ordered them, the animals’ suffering is justified and… good!