Seven-year-old sacrificed to the gods for good harvest in India

[cbayer]

20. It would be rather redundant for me to do that, as it is done every day

here using both current and historical examples.

What I am pointing out is that the arguments that use an event like this to universally condemn religion are fallacious at best. Using fringe groups or people as models of behavior or thought for the whole just doesn't work very well. It would not be dissimilar to holding up the Stalinist or Pol Pot regimes as examples of atheism being evil, an argument which is repeatedly (and justifiably) shot down here.

Bad, ignorant, desperate people do bad, ignorant and desperate things. Sometimes they use religion to justify or explain things and sometimes they don't do that at all.

Honestly, Scott, you don't know what I may or may not hate to admit. These people are disturbed and are doing disturbing things. They may be driven by "religious belief", if that term is to be applied pretty broadly, but it can't be legitimately said that they represent anything typical or acceptable about religious believers.