Hindu mass animal sacrifices to Gadhimai, goddess of power

Hindus in Nepal lead their buffalos to slaughter as a
sacrifice to the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai. The
red cloths on the buffalo indicate they are meant for the
sacrificial slaughter. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

The Hindus in Nepal are sacrificing 250,000 animals in a village near the border with India. The Hindus believe that their sacrifice to the goddess of power, Gadhimai, will give them five years of good fortune.

The Hindus on the Indonesian resort island of Bali are in conflict with the Indonesian government over their desire to sacrifice endangered sea turtles during their religious ceremonies. The Associated Press reports Bali Hindu leader Ngurah Sudiana complaining, "The central government should understand the need for green turtles as part of traditional ceremonies because it relates to our faith. Prohibiting it will hurt Balinese people." Sudiana did not say how saving endangered green turtles from slaughter for religious faith/superstition will hurt the Balinese people.

When asked about the cruelty to the animals who are slaughtered in a painful and terrorized way, one Hindu attempted to justify it simply because it is tradition. He also added, "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled."

The reality of it is the freely given animals that the poor farmers give for the sacrifice are sold by the religious leaders to meat and hide companies. The religious leaders make the money off of the sacrifices given by the farmers and poor people. Some of the profits are put back into the local community and into temple upkeep. This gives the "holy" men a lot of leeway with the cash!

In addition to shady financial dealings at the expense of the deluded mass of people, the mass animal sacrifices violate basic humanistic standards for slaughtering animals. Instead of quickly killing them in a humane way, these animals are penned in and chased down until caught at which time their heads are cut off. This inhumane death for religious purposes is similar to the kosher method of slaughter in which the animals blood has to be completely drained which requires the animal to bleed to death.

There are strong indications that the "revealed" religions, such as Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc., may eventually be eclipsed by the reason and Nature based religious/spiritual philosophy of Deism. Currently the World Union of Deists has Deist contacts and members on every continent except Antarctica and a recent survey of religious identification demonstrates that in the U.S. alone there are already approximately 30 million people who have Deistic beliefs but just don't know it yet.