Diane Vera

In one of my replies in the thread Grandmothers arrested over 'satanic sex abuse' on "satanicnews," I wrote:

I do not deny that human sacrifice exists. However, it exists in the context of religious and magical worldviews that are largely (though not completely) extinct (unless you stretch the definition of "human sacrifice" to include things like religious wars, religiously motivated terrorism, and executions).

Satanism, on the other hand, is inherently post-Christian, or at least post-Abrahamic. Satanism necessarily involves reinterpretations of the Christian/Abrahamic figure of "Satan." (By the way, I don't define "Satanism" as narrowly as some folks do, e.g. by limiting that term of LaVeyan Satanism. To me a "Satanist" is anyone with a favorable view of Satan.)

Because Satanism necessarily post-dates the Abrahamic religions, most Satanists, of whatever stripe, are simply not in touch with the ancient magical and religious worldviews that necessitated human sacrifice. Ditto for most modern Pagans and occultists, whose beliefs are likewise post-Christian, even though they do pride themselves on drawing from more ancient roots. Of course, even Christianity does preserve the idea of human sacrifice in symbolic form (e.g. the Eucharist). However, by the time of the Roman Empire, most of the civilized world (not just the Abrahamic religions) had pretty much left human sacrifice behind.

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