Free Republic

COLLINSVILLE -- Human sacrifice! Victims buried alive! Read all about it in "Cahokia -- Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi." According to this new book by University of Illinois archaeologist and professor of anthropology Tim Pauketat, the mound builders were not always the idyllic, corn-growing, pottery-making, fishing-hunting gentle villagers depicted in various dioramas at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville. Pauketat said these long-vanished people practiced human sacrifice of women and men on a mass scale and weren't always careful to bury only the dead. Based on years of study of artifacts including many from the extensive...

Many of the 33 mummies uncovered near Chiclayo, Peru, were those of girls—a rarity, experts say. Their throats slit, the girls were probably killed in a bid for agricultural fertility. Research into 33 mummies discovered in Peru has revealed most of the bodies were girls, most likely sacrificed in the belief their deaths would bring fertility to the peoples farmlands. Utah Valley University professor Haagen Klaus is an expert in bio-archaeology and has been examining the human remains found in 2007 at the Chotuna Huaca, a site located north east of Chiclayo, Peru.

LIMA - RESEARCHERS at an archeological site in northern Peru have made an unusually large discovery of nearly three dozen people sacrificed some 600 years ago by the Incan civilisation. The bodies, some of which show signs of having been cut along their necks and collarbones, were otherwise found in good condition, said Mr Carlos Webster, who is leading excavations at the Chotuna-Chornancap camp.

Researchers at an archeological site in northern Peru have made an unusually large discovery of nearly three dozen people sacrificed some 600 years ago by the Incan civilization.

Recent evidence that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice—perhaps on a massive scale—add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, archaeologists say.After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

It is the year 22006 A.D. and through the wonders of literary license, we are able to look down on a group of scientists who have made a stunning and grisly discovery. An archaeological expedition is being led by Professor Ralph Jameson from Belize University. Jameson is one of the foremost authorities in pre-Ice Age antiquity. Jameson's discoveries have changed the way the world views North America's ancient history. During a trip to the North American continent, which for the past 18,000 plus years has been buried under more than a mile of glacial ice, Jameson is accompanied by a...

Around 2300 B.C., an acrobat was killed during a bizarre sacrificial ceremony in what is now northeastern Syria, according to a new study published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity. Gory evidence of the entertainer's death -- along with the remains of several rare horse-like animals which appear to have been sacrificed as well -- was found in the remains of a building at a site called Tell Brak, which was once the ancient city of Nagar. The findings suggest some ancient cultures may have sacrificed well-known public figures, as well as animals of great personal and monetary...

The victims of human sacrifice by Mexico's ancient Mayans, who threw children into water-filled caverns, were likely boys and young men not virgin girls as previously believed, archeologists said on Tuesday... Maya priests in the city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula sacrificed children to petition the gods for rain and fertile fields by throwing them into sacred sinkhole caves, known as "cenotes." The caves served as a source of water for the Mayans and were also thought to be an entrance to the underworld. Archeologist Guillermo de Anda from the University of Yucatan pieced together the bones of...

Monrovia - An evangelical pastor described the atrocities he and his men committed during the Liberian civil war, including magical rituals that involved slaughtering children and eating their hearts. Joshua Milton Blahyi spared no details on Tuesday as he told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of his years with one of the most feared militias of the war. Dressed in an immaculate suit, Blahyi, 37, said it was for the TRC to decide whether he should be given an amnesty or prosecuted. "I am willing to go to court if necessary," he said. "And I will repeat just what...

LAGOS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A Nigerian man was sentenced to life in prison for trying to kidnap a boy with the intention of killing him and using his body parts in rituals to get rich. Prosecutors told an Islamic court that Abdullahi Mohammed hit the boy with a chicken on Dec. 22 and believed the bird had special powers. "The accused alleged that the mysterious chicken was given to him by a friend, one Ibrahim, to kidnap children for money making rituals," the News Agency of Nigeria reported. The judge said the punishment for ritualists was death by hanging,...

RIOT police have been flown into an area in Finschhafen, where a gun battle between villagers, who are believed to be a part of a cult movement, and police left several people dead and many more injured. Police yesterday could not confirm the exact number of people killed on injured in the armed confrontation between Sialum villagers and police at a remote mountainous area in Morobe province. Police believe they were dealing with a cult movement involved in willful murders and human sacrifices as offerings to their gods. A full mobile squad and the police “Eye in the Sky” helicopter...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Archeologists have discovered the remains of two dozen children in Mexico apparently sacrificed by priests who slashed their throats and offered their blood to the rain god Tlaloc, researchers said Tuesday. The discovery at a former Toltec settlement indicates child sacrifice predated the Aztecs, an advanced civilization conquered by the Spain in the 16th century and was fairly commonplace. Dating to about AD 950 to 1150, the bones of the children were found on the outskirts of the Toltec archeological zone Tula, said Luis Gamboa, an archeologist for the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The...

Abortion as Pagan Sacrifice by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. We know what the word “sacrifice” means. It means the surrender of something precious to the god in whom a person believes. Sacrifices have been part of world religions since the dawn of recorded history. Without exception, the deities of all the religions of the ancient world demanded sacrifices in their honor. The Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks and Romans, the deities of pre-Christian India and of the continent of Africa required that their adherents offer what we call sacrifices in their name. What is less well known, however, is...

As they waited to be sacrificed outside a temple, the victims made no attempt to escape their fate: their throats were cut, they were decapitated and their hearts ripped out. Their hands were not tied and they offered no resistance to the sacrificial knife. A seed containing a potent drug was used to paralyse their bodies, leaving the victims aware of a terrifying ritual that has been revealed for the first time by a dig in the vast pre-Colombian city of Túcume in northern Peru. Archaeologists working in the ruined city of giant pyramids have discovered one of the largest...

Conception — the point at which life begins. At least it is according to the fundamentalist community, anyway. The stance of Right to Life supporters is that abortion is outright murder and deprivation of life. I disagree. How can you kill something that is not yet living? Besides, banning abortion deprives the mother of her rights to property and to the pursuit of happiness. A fetus is not a living human, and the mother has the right to decide to abort it. During the first trimester of the pregnancy, the fetus is merely a wad of cells. A mere wad...

Those who seek to outlaw abortion often use the rhetoric of "protecting the most vulnerable and helpless" in our communities. Many of them are Christians who see their opposition to abortion rights as inextricably linked with their faith and their understanding of Christian ethics. After all, wouldn't a God of love and life want us to protect life wherever we found it? If only it were that simple. In practice, there are other questions we must ask. Does a God of love and life ever support war? Does such a God understand that some innocent civilians will die when we...

A painted image of the Hindu goddess Kali is propped up against a stone in the dirt, her long red tongue goading terrified worshippers into submission. From one of her eight flailing arms a severed head dangles, her neck is adorned by a necklace of bleached human skulls. There are bloodstains on the cracked wall behind the terrible postcard-size image and, around the dark room, splattered gore on the heavy wooden furniture. These dark marks bear witness to a child sacrificed in the name of the abominable goddess.

Khurja (Uttar Pradesh): It's a gory tale of child sacrifice being practiced as a ritual in the dark alleys of rural India. A woman and her two sons sacrificed their eight-year-old neighbour in Khurja disrict of Uttar Pradesh on a local tantrik's advice. The sacrifice, prescribed by a local tantrik, was meant get Sumitra and her two sons - Sanju and Satbir - rid of the nightmares they had been getting. "It's because of blind superstitions and rampant illiteracy in the area, that this woman sacrificed an eight-year-old boy," Additional Superintendent of Police, Khurja, A K Singh, said. The modus...

... Whenever I am out with Margaret, I'm conscious that she represents a group whose ranks are shrinking because of the wide availability of prenatal testing and abortion. I don't know how many pregnancies are terminated because of prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome, but some studies estimate 80 to 90 percent. Imagine. As Margaret bounces through life, especially out here in the land of the perfect body, I see the way people look at her: curious, surprised, sometimes wary, occasionally disapproving or alarmed. I know that most women of childbearing age that we may encounter have judged her and her...

According to the Wesley Blog, Planned Parenthood has hired a chaplain, Dr. Ignacio Castuera. This chaplain, though, doesn’t serve the spiritual needs of people. Instead, he serves the public relations needs of Planned Parenthood (PP). Here’s the description of his responsibilities, from a PP press release: As chaplain, Dr. Castuera will act as a public spokesperson to promote Planned Parenthood's mission and vision. He will play a pivotal role in communicating the theological justification for choice, sexuality, and contraception to the Planned Parenthood community and the general public. He will also be available to provide advice to volunteer and staff...

Statues of Ancient Goddesses Discovered By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 42 minutes ago ATHENS, Greece - The life-sized marble statues of two ancient Greek goddesses have emerged during excavations of a 5,000-year-old town on the island of Crete, archaeologists said Friday. The works, representing the goddesses Athena and Hera, date to between the second and fourth centuries — during the period of Roman rule in Greece — and originally decorated the Roman theater in the town of Gortyn, archaeologist Anna Micheli from the Italian School of Archaeology told The Associated Press. "They are in very good condition,"...

The bodies of three unborn children concealed in statues of Christian saints reportedly were found yesterday, with authorities believing they were intended for use in satanic rituals in the U.S. The BBC and other wire services say the gruesome discovery was made at the international airport in Bogota, Colombia, as police were conducting routine searches for contraband. The country's anti-narcotics police chief, Gen. Jord Alirio Varon, said the 4- to 5-month-old fetuses were discovered wrapped in plastic alongside crucifixes inside a cardboard box, all hidden inside porcelain statues of Christian icons, which were smashed open. He did not provide details...

Excavated in the summer of 1979, this four-room building set within a low enclosure (temenos) wall serves as a reminder that our views about a past culture may be subject to sudden and drastic change as the result of a single new discovery. The building, oriented roughly to the cardinal points and entered from the north, lies on the northern slopes of Mt. Iuktas some seven kilometers south of Knossos . In plan, it consists of an east-west corridor at the front off of which open three non-connecting rectangular rooms oriented north-south. In the east room were found large numbers...

WORLD RELIGIONS ON ABORTION HINDUISM Vasu Murti and Mary Krane Derr write in the Fall 1998 issue of the Journal of Feminism and Non-Violence Studies that "Hinduism teaches that abortion, like any other act of violence, thwarts a soul in its progress toward God. Hindu scriptures and tradition have from the earliest of times condemned the practice of abortion, except when the life of the mother is in danger. Hinduism teaches that the fetus is a living, conscious person needing and deserving protection. Hindu scriptures refer to abortion as garha-batta (womb killing) and bhroona hathya (killing the undeveloped soul)." ISLAM...

Children are being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifices, a confidential report for the Metropolitan Police suggests. Children are being beaten and even murdered after being labelled as witches by pastors, the report leaked to BBC Radio 4's Today programme said. Police face a "wall of silence" in investigations because of fear and mistrust among the groups involved. It follows the case of a girl tortured by her guardians for being a witch. Three people, including the girl's aunt, were convicted of trying to "beat the devil out of" the un-named 10-year-old - originally from...

Boys from Africa are being murdered as human sacrif ices in London churches. They are brought into the capital to be offered up in rituals by fundamentalist Christian sects, according to a shocking report by Scotland Yard. [snip]

A Kansas City abortionist is out of business after investigators discovered a grisly house of horrors at his clinic – with fetuses kept in Styrofoam cups in his refrigerator and one employee accusing him of microwaving one and stirring it into his lunch. The unsanitary conditions in Krishna Rajanna's clinic prompted legislative approval of new abortion regulations in Kansas, a bill that was vetoed by the governor. Rajanna's activities have reportedly been the subject of law-enforcement investigations for nearly two years. Rajanna first came to the attention of police in September 2003 when he called police to investigate alleged employee...

Archaeologists uncover scene of human sacrificeA gruesome sight has met archaeologists engaged in excavations in central China - an altar devoted to human sacrifice, complete with the remains of an unfortunate victim. The discovery of the 7,000-year-old cult site, near Hongjiang city in Hunan province, may make it necessary to rewrite history, as it is the earliest human sacrificial site ever found in China. According to local media, the fact that the sacrificial venue contained the skeleton of a human left no doubt in the archaeologists' minds what its original use had been. Nearby was a separate sacrificial site for...

The pro-choice voice among religious groups has been silent for a long time, but now, at least in Collier County, that will be a thing of the past. About 100 people from five faith organizations in the community, their religious leaders, and supporters of Planned Parenthood of Collier County met Saturday for a conference about abortion and reproductive freedom, realizing a shared conviction for women's rights to choose and the need to be vocal. The intent of the three-hour workshop held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in North Naples was to launch a coalition to fight the misconception that religious...

I am convinced God uses trials like the Terri Schiavo case to test men. Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer was tested – and found wanting. He had seven years to consider this case and got it wrong every time. I don't know Greer personally, but I know many people like him. They go to church on Sunday and then between Monday and Friday lead lives with no seeming connection to what they hear preached in the pulpit, what they read in the Bible, what they claim to believe of the Christian faith. This may be the biggest single...

For James Phillips' sake, the Eagles need to win the Super Bowl. Or his sacrifice was all for naught. "They better win the Super Bowl after all I went through," Phillips said tonight from his hospital bed, mopping the sweat from his brow with bandages that are wrapped around both of his hands. He said doctors have told him that they are going to have to cut off the tips of the pinky, ring and middle finger on his left hand due to severe frostbite. Phillips, of Marcus Hook, worked for 30 hours shoveling snow at Lincoln Financial Field the...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - It has long been a matter of contention: Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as the history books say? Or did the Spanish conquerors overstate it to make the Indians look primitive? In recent years archaeologists have been uncovering mounting physical evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, if not number. Using high-tech forensic tools, archaeologists are proving that pre-Hispanic sacrifices often involved children and a broad array of intentionally brutal killing methods. For decades, many researchers believed Spanish accounts from the 16th and 17th centuries were biased...

While I sipped my tea and listened to the rain patter, the History Channel dug up a dead civilization and found a large sewer that held thousands of baby bones, victims of infanticide, a common practice of this ancient, forgotten society. Anthropologists tell us two of the biggest indicators of a doomed civilization are the practice of infanticide and human sacrifice. In other words, cultures and species that kill their own young do not survive. If history really does repeat itself, then American society may also be doomed to extinction. What will future archaeologists discover when they dig up America?...

  Surveys show a solid majority of Americans still support the right to abortion in some form, but the number of those who would impose conditions on that right is growing[1]             According to a year 2000 Gallup Poll: Most American adults (51%) currently believe that abortions should be legal under some circumstances.            28% believe that abortions should be legal under all circumstances.            19% believe that they should be always illegal -- apparently even to save the life of the woman. The same poll reveals that 50% of adults identify themselves as pro-choice; 40% as pro-life.[2Average ABC News...

--SNIP-- I found "The Cost of Choice," edited by Erika Bachiochi unpleasant and occasionally annoying — and I read every word. That's because, despite its rigorous pro-life stance, the book brings new observations and depth to a subject that is usually treated as black and white. Don't misunderstand: This is not an on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand book — it trumpets many of the classic hobbyhorses of pro-lifers — that the Roe decision itself was an abortion of responsibility and federalism, that its prominence in the agenda of womens' groups has itself "hijacked" feminism and that abortions themselves are an act against women....

A Supreme Court vacancy may soon ignite a controversy involving two entangled issues — abortion, and the role of courts in this constitutional democracy. Herewith a statement the president might usefully make sometime, somewhere, to disentangle the issues: "Because I think it is improper to ask how a prospective judicial nominee would vote on a specific question, I shall not know how my nominees would rule in the event — an unlikely event — that the court revisits the constitutional foundation of abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. However, I will seek judicial nominees disinclined to concoct...

Listen beginning at 2:22:45 into the show. The talk lasts for about 15 minutes. Rabbi Yudin gives a radio commentary each week on the Torah portion that Jews around the world will read in synagogues on Saturday. This week we will read from the beginning of the book of Exodus (Shmos). Yudin's commentary begins with consideration of verse 16, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live," and then moves through a variety of Jewish writings to...

12/27/04Human Sacrifice Was Common in Burnt City Tehran (Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency) -- According to archeological research in the 5000-year-old burnt city, in eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, sacrificing human beings was a common practice in ancient times. After excavating a number of graves in the cemetery of the burnt city, the Iranian archeological team came across signs of murder and generally beheaded bodies.“During excavations in the burnt city cemetery, we came across a grave with only one skull buried along with gifts and personal items needed for the afterlife. There was also another grave in the form of a...

WASHINGTON — After long defining itself as an undisputed defender of abortion rights, the Democratic Party is suddenly locked in an internal struggle over whether to redefine its position to appeal to a broader array of voters. The fight is a central theme of the contest to head the Democratic National Committee, particularly between two leading candidates: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who supports abortion rights, and former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer, an abortion foe who argues that the party cannot rebound from its losses in the November election unless it shows more tolerance on one of society's most emotional...

Excuse me, I'm stupid. I'm trying to figure out what the word "conscience" might mean, in the mind of Paul Martin -- or to make it a little less personal, in the mind of any prominent post-modern political leader. John Kerry for instance. In the recent U.S. election, Mr. Kerry was at pains to affirm that he believed, as a good Catholic, that human life begins at conception. Now, that was an admirably plain statement. For if life begins at conception, the procurement of an abortion must be tantamount to murder. And, good Catholic that he is, Mr. Kerry would...

Mexican tomb reveals gruesome human sacrifice 18:46 03 December 04 NewScientist.com news service   Evidence of a grisly human sacrifice and a complex military infrastructure has emerged from an excavation of the ruins of a pyramid in the 2000-year-old city of Teotihuacan in Mexico. A vault containing 12 bodies, ten of which had been decapitated, along with the remains of pumas, wolves and eagles were discovered at the city's central structure, the Pyramid of the Moon. "What we have found in this excavation suggests that a certain kind of mortuary ritual took place inside the tomb before it was filled in," says...

A resident of the northern Israeli-Arab town of Umm al Fahm earlier this week gave himself up to police and admitted he attempted to murder a Jewish man ten days ago, police reported on Friday. On November 16, a 23-year-old Jewish man from the West Bank city of Ariel was stabbed in his back while waiting in a bus stop at the Geha junction in the center of the country. The man said the stabber had a Middle Eastern appearance and an Arabic accent. Earlier this week, Mustafa Mahajna, 28, arrived at a police station in the Dan district and...

ROCHESTER, NH -- Lawyers for a Farmington woman and her boyfriend who are charged with threatening to kill her three children in a church say their clients meant the children no harm. Nicole Mancini, 29, and John Thurber, 35, of Rochester, were arrested at St. Mary's Church on Wednesday after workers said they heard the woman say she wanted to sacrifice her sons on the altar. Each was arraigned on three misdemeanor counts of child endangerment on Friday. Thurber also faces a charge of marijuana possession.

ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - A woman and her boyfriend are accused of plotting to sacrifice the woman's three children on a church altar. Nicole Mancini, 29, and John Thurber, 35, were arrested at St. Mary's Church on Wednesday after workers said they heard the woman say she wanted to sacrifice the boys. "We could tell this woman was not right," said church secretary Donna Landolfi. "She said, 'Let's go make the sacrifice.'" Mancini and Thurber were in jail Saturday on more than $25,000 bail. They were arraigned Friday on three counts each of misdemeanor child endangerment. Thurber was also charged...

After 24 years in Congress, David Dreier is in the fight of his political life, waging a battle for his own identity. The dialogue surrounding his run for re-election to the 26th district seat in Congress has reached a furious pitch, but is also contradictory. Either -- as Dreier says -- he is one of the strongest champions of the fight against illegal immigration, or he is weaker on the issue than almost anyone in Congress, as a vocal group of activists charges. "I've never gone through anything like this -- it's the most blatant mischaracterization of the work I've...

A Ghanaian mother who claims her young son will be "sacrificed," handed over to fetish tribal priests and left vulnerable to abuse is fighting to remain in Canada. Lawyers for Evelyn Edna Baisie, 34, of North York, will file another appeal to the Federal Court of Canada next month in a last-ditch bid for her and her family to stay in Canada. Baisie told the court this month she had to flee her homeland after an abusive husband threatened to have their then unborn son "sacrificed to fetish priests" in a religious tribal practice called Trokosi. Trokosi is the practice...

Abortion may drag us to history's grave

Satanists blame Devil for 666 ritual killingFRIDAY JANUARY 18 2002 FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN DRESSED in black and shunning the sunlight, one of Germany’s most notorious Satanists told a murder trial yesterday that she had learnt to be a vampire in a Gothic club in North London. “That was my apprenticeship,” Manuela Ruda, 23, said in the trial which has sent ripples of alarm through German families. Frau Ruda and her husband, Daniel, are accused of the murder of a 33-year-old friend — his corpse was found in a coffin in her bedroom, his face slashed 66 times ...

From the beginning, planners of the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement wanted the participation of Virginia's eight Native American tribes. But things were shaky from the start -- the committee asked tribal leaders to join in preparations for the Jamestown 2007 "celebration." After the chiefs pointed out that Native Americans have no reason to celebrate the founding of the first permanent English settlement on their ancestral land, the year-long series of events was swiftly renamed a "commemoration." Now, the degree of tribal participation is again in question over an issue that the planners says they can do little about...

London - A Nigerian man questioned in connection with the suspected ritual murder of a boy whose torso was found in the River Thames nearly two years ago is responsible for the deaths of 11 children, his wife told British police, The Sunday Times said. Sam Onojhighovie, 37, was arrested on July 2 in Dublin under a German extradition warrant for offences linked to human trafficking but has also been questioned in the Adam case, the nickname given to the boy found dead in September 2001. His wife Joyce Osagiede told British immigration in November 2001 that she was escaping...