They could be a modern version of the religion. As was stated by the other poster, some of the customs of the old testament are no longer practiced. Imagine if at the local temple they burnt 100 sheep in the back lot. Don't think PETA would be pleased.
Asatru is a religion, Paganism never has, and doesn't now, have anything to do with religion. Asatru has taken points of Norse Paganism and adopted them into a religious format, kind of like what the Christians did to Easter. Paganism covers a wide range of beliefs and there are some in which power is used for the worst, but this is a minority, and we do what we can to stop it.
there are many sacrifices in the bible too...tell me how that's peaceful?????
as far as vicunas go...they value nature.they see in the world wham out her people are too busy fighting to look at. when was the last time that you stop led to admire a pretty flower or tree???ill bet it was a long time ago ??? you seem to be too busy trying to find a group of people to cut down....now you tell me who's more peaceful????
there has been sacra fices made in most religions in the past
times have changed !
and pagans would not wish this tradition of sacrifice to be carried out any more than Christians would or any other religion
HUMAN SACRIFICE; COMMON PLACE?!?!?!?!??! Far from it. While there were groups that did practice some form of it, it was far from common. It varied from regions to region, and from group to group. Most often the "sacrifice" was done as a form of capitol punishment fro criminals and prisoners of war. This was the case in both Europe and the Americas. In fact among the Aztecs the blood sacrifice was usually contained to Small amounts released from the tongue or the genitals. It was a rare occurrence for a human to be sacrificed, only in time of incredibly dire need whee the gods need extra blood (which was their sustenance.)
And as for being peaceful. The various pagan religions of the past had no concept of a religious war, or the idea of fighting or killing simply because someone didn't follow their gods. There wasn't the wholesale slaughter of others for petty roans. In truth it was rare for fighting to end in death. And the idea of a killing planned out and carried out in secret, while it did happen, was so rare that there wasn't even a real name for it in some cultures.
One only has to look at the writings from the time both by those people and by outside observers to know that they had a far greater value for human life than most people alive do today or even try to pretend to have.
Human Sacrifice were commonplace in ALL religions at one point in time. Even the roots of Christianity. It's right in the Bible. Times have changed. There are laws against it now, so we don't. The end.
I keep picturing lots of t-ed off vikings frantically banging away on their laptops right now in response to this.
Human sacrifice, historically, has basis in ALL religions. To say that the Asatru are bringing it back has the same effect as saying Christians are throwing people to the lions again to make God happy.
You certainly do have a fascination with human sacrifice.
I am a pagan who worships The Creator (Chaos essentially because I believe it can not be defined by us mortals) and Gaea or Ge of the ancient Greeks, and no where in history does it say that I or any before me should sacrifice a human being. Where do you get such misguided ideas?