Concluding Thoughts

It is the end of the semester so I just wanted to share some concluding thoughts. The main thing that I learned this semester is that sacrifice does not just happen in religion. This semester we discussed sacrifice in warfare and in capital punishment, as well as in religion. In warfare the kinds of sacrifice are self-sacrifice and the killing of the enemy. The nation or ideology in warfare serves as a kind of god, who is being fought for and defended. The enemy serves as a kind of rival god, who is also battling for control and worship. Capital punishment is also responsible for sacrifice. The criminal serves as a sacrifice, who is given for the state, to keep the state in peace or collective harmony. In religion, we see sacrifice in the sacrifice of humans to the gods, as in the Aztec religion, and we also see sacrifice in the Crusades, where both sides were sacrificing themselves for god. In all these topics, violence is present. We learned in A Terrible Love of War, that violence has always been used and probably, always will. If this is the case, then sacrifice is here to stay.