The ancient pagan world was full of human sacrifice. The most horrifying instance was child sacrifice. We got an inkling of this in this summer’s smash-hit The Odyssey, with the brief depiction of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter for favorable winds.
One of the most important changes that occurred from the pagan to the monotheistic, Judeo-Christian world was the outlawing of child sacrifice. The Judeo-Christian teaching that every individual is created in the image of God meant that one’s children are not one’s property — they are not items to do with as one pleases. The teaching that all individuals are created in the image of God meant that children are equally infinitely valuable as their parents, and therefore parents have no right to sacrifice them to appease the gods, or God, no matter how spiritually or psychologically pressed the parent may feel.
