Editing Religious abuse (section)

===Human sacrifice===
{{Main|Human sacrifice|Child sacrifice|Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures}}
Human sacrifice (sometimes called ritual murder) has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice is typically intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods. Fertility was another common theme in ancient religious sacrifices.

Human sacrifice may be a ritual practiced in a stable society, and may even be conducive to [[Sociology of religion|enhance societal unity]], both by creating a bond unifying the sacrificing community, and in combining human sacrifice and capital punishment, by removing individuals that have a perceived negative effect on societal stability (criminals, religious heretics, foreign slaves or prisoners of war). However, outside of civil religion, human sacrifice may also result in outbursts of blood frenzy and mass killings that destabilize society.

[[Archaeology]] has uncovered physical evidence of [[child sacrifice]] at several locations.<ref name="Hardness">{{cite book |last=Milner |first=Larry S. |title=Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide |publisher=University Press of America |year=2000 |isbn=9780761815785 |location=Lanham |pages=16–22}}</ref> Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Inca Empire]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reinhard |first1=Johan |last2=Stenzel |first2=Maria |date=November 1999 |title=A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo |journal=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |language=es |pages=36–55}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Allingham |first=Winnie |date=1999-04-14 |title=The mystery of Inca child sacrifice |url=http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306113143/http://exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 |archive-date=2008-03-06 |access-date=25 January 2017 |website=EXN}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de Sahagún |first=Bernardino |title=''Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain'', 12 books and 2 introductory volumes |title-link=Florentine Codex |date=1950–1982 |publisher=University of Utah Press |others=Translated and edited by Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles Dibble |location=Utah |author-link=Bernardino de Sahagún}}</ref> Psychologists [[Alice Miller (psychologist)|Alice Miller]] and Robert Godwin, psychohistorian [[Lloyd deMause]] and other advocates of children's rights have written about pre-Columbian sacrifice within the framework of [[child abuse]].{{Sfn|deMause|2002|p=312, 374, 410}}{{sfn|Godwin|2004|p=168f}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Alice |title=Breaking down the walls of silence |publisher=Dutton/[[Penguin Books]] |year=1991 |isbn=9780525933571 |location=New York |pages=91}}</ref>

[[Plutarch]] ({{circa|46–120 AD}}) mentions the [[Carthage|Carthaginian]]'s ritual burning of small children, as do [[Tertullian]], [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]], [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Philo]]. [[Livy]] and [[Polybius]] do not. There is no conclusive archaeological evidence for Carthaginian child sacrifice but the occurrence of the practise has not been ruled out.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cerezo-Román |first1=Jessica I. |last2=Kaufman |first2=Brett |last3=McGowan |first3=Glenys |last4=Drine |first4=Ali |last5=Fenn |first5=Thomas R. |last6=Barnard |first6=Hans |last7=Khedher |first7=Rayed |last8=Tahar |first8=Sami Ben |last9=Edington |first9=Stacy |last10=Jerray |first10=Elyssa |last11=Daniels |first11=Megan |date=2024 |title=The life and death of cremated infants and children from the Neo-Punic tophet at Zita, Tunisia |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=98 |issue=400 |pages=936–953 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2024.85 |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref> The [[Hebrew Bible]] also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practised at a place called the [[Tophet]] (''roasting place'') by the [[Canaan]]ites, and by some Israelites.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Shelby |title=Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press |year=1991 |isbn=9781850752400 |location=Sheffield}}</ref>

Children were thrown to the sharks in ancient [[Hawaii]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=Nigel |url=https://archive.org/details/humansacrificein00davi/page/192 |title=Human Sacrifice in History and Today |publisher=William Morrow & Co. |year=1981 |isbn=9780880292115 |location=New York |page=192 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Sacrificial victims were often infants. "The slaughtering of newborn babies may be considered a common event in many cultures" including the [[Eskimo]], the [[Polynesians]], the [[Ancient Egypt]]ians, the [[Chinese people|Chinese]], the [[Scandinavia]]ns, and various indigenous peoples of [[Ethnic groups of Africa|Africa]], [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|the Americas]] and [[Indigenous Australians|Australia]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Grotstein |first=James S. |title=Who is the dreamer who dreams the dream? |publisher=The Analytic Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780881633054 |series=Relational Perspectives Book Series |volume=19 |location=Hillsdale |pages=247, 242}}</ref>