Mayan religion sacrifices

Human sacrifice is the activity of sacrificing people to gods. It has been widely practised in one form or another throughout the history of mankind and still continues, usually in more subtle ways (obsidian knives are rarely used nowadays) and the definition can be broadened somewhat. For example, in the United States, human sacrifices to [a] God are usually only carried out by medical professionals. However, human sacrifices to appease the right-wing conservatives are often performed on criminals.

Function

Human sacrifice often served as a method of population control, especially during times of hardship. Oh, your crops failed and half your village will starve? Time to appease the gods. The religious aspects were often added after the fact, to avoid the whole issue of killing people. Another function was population control of subjugated states, demanding a tribute of young boys to be sacrificed each year; a rather effective way to make sure they don't have enough warriors to protest.

Human sacrifice in the Bible

There was a famine that ran for three straight years. King David made his inquiries, and the LORD answered, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."

So the king called the Gibeonites in and asked them what he could do to make them whole again. They didn't want any gold or silver from Saul's estate. Instead they said, "The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul."

So the king took the two sons of Rizpah and the five sons of Michal, which they bore unto Saul, and delivered them to the Gibeonites. They hanged them on the hill before the LORD and were put to death in the beginning of the barley harvest.

And after David took the bones of the hanged men and buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan, God was intreated for the land.

God at one point demands that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac, but backs off after he sees that Abraham is actually... faithful enough to actually do it. See Genesis 22:2.

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