Aztec live pounding heart Sacrifices

The Aztecs believed that in order to keep things balanced, a fresh supply freshly detached hearts had to be thrown into a fire to be offered to the gods.

For priests would hold down the victim, stab the person right below the rib cage and pull out the heart, all while the victim was alive.

To me, if I were to imagine this process it would remind me of the Nick Berg decapitation video which made me sick to my stomach.

However, I was wondering if there was an alterior reason why people were sacrificed. Or maybe, why the elders told the people why they needed to sacrifice people.

Blood.

the spilling of Blood is the key; sacraficing an animal, slitting your palms and making a "blood oath", the ritual that the Mayan royalty went through
(piercing their genitals and tongues, spilling blood onto scrolls and into containers), the drinking of wine in place of the blood of Christ, on and on.

The obsession with spilling Blood has been with Man since our beginnings. What the Aztecs did is no different than any other culture has done, including ours. They just rationalized it in a different manner.

Human sacrifice on an immense scale played an important part in Aztec religion and ritual.
The Aztecs believed that unless the God Huitzilopochtli was constantly prayed to, and fed with human blood, he would die.

If that happened, the sun would no longer move across the sky, the earth would grow dark and cold, and all creatures would die.

Bloody sacrifices also acted out Aztec myths about the Creation. At the beginning of the world, the gods had all sacrificed themselves, in order to give life to the sun.

The people sacrificed themselves to gain favours from the gods such as putting the sacrificed body in a well when need of a rainfall.

As you can see sacrificing was part of the believe of these people and respect to their gods.

Originally posted by marg6043
The people sacrificed themselves to gain favours from the gods

They, and other central american tribes, largely sacrificed enemies captured in war.

i know thats what they believed, but what if they were told this for the ends of something else?

For example, god taught jews not to eat pork because pork carried toxins and diseases. Im thinking in that nature, rather than the chew its cud, cleft foot, etc.

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by marg6043
The people sacrificed themselves to gain favours from the gods

They, and other central american tribes, largely sacrificed enemies captured in war.

Yes you are right but when they lacked the rivals bodies for sacrifices they would sacrifice their own.

Also is historical facts that points out that they used sacrifices for population control in times when they experienced lack of food to feed their people.

I've read that Aztecs practiced cannibalism, especially during
times of overpopulation or drought.
Maybe the sacrifices served a double purpose. To appease
the gods and supplement their diet.