Devoted Actors die & kill in the name of Sacred Objects: Part XV

Gods arise out of sacrifice: if no one was willing to sacrifice for a god, how would we know this god existed? A suicide bombers blows himself up in the name of Allah. Japanese kamikaze pilots flew into aircraft carriers in the name of the Japanese Emperor.  What is the mechanism? The sacrificial act—giving one’s life—functions as a testimony to the truth or reality of the entity in whose name the individual dies. A law of sacrifice. People give their lives to prove the reality of the sacred object with which they identify.