The Illogic of Sacrifice as Atonement for Sin

There is one line of thought that connects Christianity with older Jewish custom and practice, but it is hardly a complimentary one. This is the continuation of the idea of sacrifice as being an atonement for sin.

The older Jewish practice was one of animal sacrifice and this primitive rite can only be considered a disgusting and inane procedure at best. Further it suffers from the lack of a convincing cause/effect relationship — there is no logical reason why a sacrifice would carry with it a remission of sin. This concept of sacrifice was carried over in explaining Jesus’ death but what is never mentioned, nor realized, is that it carries with it all the grossness and logical impediment of the previous Jewish concept. Truly the entire sacrifice/remission of sin concept carries with it the imprint of a man-made rite — no deity of wisdom and all-encompassing power would ever stoop to such an outlandish practice of concept. Obviously an all-powerful deity would not need such a practice of concept and could simply by fiat grant remission of sin. The whole carryover of the idea into Christianity may well have been Paul’s contribution to Christian doctrine, inasmuch as he was apparently well grounded in the older Jewish tradition — a rationalization of the meaning of Jesus’ death but nothing more.