According to this report from CNN,
Authorities in the northern Mexican state of Sonora have arrested eight people accused of killing two boys and one woman as human sacrifices for Santa Muerte — the saint of death — officials said Friday.
The victims, two of whom were 10 years old, were killed and their blood was offered at an alter to the saint, according to Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for state prosecutors. The accused were asking the saint, who is generally portrayed as a skeleton dressed in a long robe and carrying a scythe, for protection, he said.
Most religions are death cults, the Catholic Church believes in a dead zombie Jew and keeps bones, blood and some organs from their dead saints and popes in jars in their churches. But this cult is a bit different, it is said to have about 2 million followers, and has been growing strongly in particular in the lower classes of Mexico in the last 20 years. Make no mistake however, the offering of human sacrifices is as much a religious practice as the rituals in Catholicism or Islam. It is rooted in superstition and lack of education and social security, and the fact that human sacrifice is still being practiced today just shows you how far humanity still has to go.
The Santa Muerte cult is said to be a result of both traditional Mesoamerican and Catholic beliefs, although the Catholic Church in Mexico denounces this particular saint and calls its followers satanists. Apparently Santa Muerte is the go-to saint for those who stand outside the law, or don’t want to be associated with the Catholics, but are still religious.
It’s all the same to me, and I’m sure those killed as human sacrifice and their families don’t care much in which saint’s or god’s name the crime was committed. Religion leads to death and bad deeds, it’s that simple. Whether you are a Satanist or a Catholic, the commonnality between these arises from the fact that in both cases false beliefs lead to terrible actions, and it doesn’t really matter if the nonexistent being you worship or believe in is Zeus or Jahweh or Allah or Santa Muerte.
