Thursday 6 March 2014

Why showing pictures of dismembered babies is not exciting to abortionists

The Guardian recently published a story about the archaeological discovery of incontrovertible evidence that the Carthaginians sacrificed infants to the gods. Although everyone in antiquity knew that the Carthaginians were baby-killers, this was not enough for modern researchers: the establishment dismissed the stories as "black propaganda" by ancient rivals. And although archaeological evidence to support ancient tales had been found during the 20th century, this still was not enough to satisfy academia. Here are the key paragraphs of the article:

Argument has raged on the subject since cemeteries known as tophets – after the biblical account of a place of sacrifice – were excavated in the early 20th century on the outskirts of Carthage in modern Tunisia, and then at other Carthaginian sites in Sicily and Sardinia. The graves held tiny cremated bones carefully packed into urns, buried under tombstones giving thanks to the gods. One has a carving which has been interpreted as a priest carrying the body of a small child. Some archaeologists and historians saw the finds as proving ancient accounts of child sacrifice; others insisted they showed tender respect for cherished children who died before or soon after birth.

A tophet outside Carthage

"The inscriptions are unequivocal: time and again we find the explanation that the gods 'heard my voice and blessed me'. It cannot be that so many children conveniently happened to die at just the right time to become an offering – and in any case a poorly or dead child would make a pretty feeble offering if you're already worried about the gods rejecting it." 

"Then there is the fact that the animals from the sites, which were beyond question sacrificial offerings, are buried in exactly the same way, sometimes in the same urns with the bones of the children." Although hundreds of remains were found, there were far too few to represent all the stillbirth and infant deaths of Carthage. According to Quinn, there were perhaps 25 such burials a year, for a city of perhaps 500,000 people. 

The Roman historian Diodorus and other ancient historians gave graphic accounts of Carthaginian child sacrifice: "There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping towards the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire."

That last detail is particularly striking. It echoes the abominable practices of the Canaanites, who killed babies and built foundations on the bodies of sacrificed humans (Could the Canaanites be related to the Carthaginians?). Apparently their god - Moloch - was in the form of a humanoid oven with a fire-pit for a belly and arms upon which you placed the baby so that it would roll into the fire.

Now here is the interesting part dear reader. We Westerners would have no hesitation condemning the Carthaginians for their barbaric and wicked practices. In fact part of the reason that the debate in the academy has been so intense is because many do not want to believe that people were that wicked. Nevertheless, and this is very interesting dear reader... how can we - we the 'civilised' people of the West - consider the Carthaginians awful, when we routinely offer up hapless infants to the god Abortion. This really is about us. You and me. How twisted and demented have we become that we can scoff at the Ancients whilst condoning the travesty of little infants being decapitated daily in our midst? Where is the straight thinking in that? Is that why showing pictures of dismembered baby parts is not that exciting to abortionists? Does it make their terribly incoherent logic crumble when the awfulness of their evil is made apparent?

Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.

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