Church father Origen
(185-254) in his Exhortation to Martyrdom
attacks animal sacrifices
as offerings to demons,
and as a reason for natural
disasters caused by God.
"Some
do not consider the truth concerning daemons, namely that if they are to
remain in this gross air near the earth they need food from sacrifices
and so keep where there is always smoke and blood and incense. Accordingly,
they hold it a light and indifferent matter to offer sacrifice. To
this we would say that if those who provide food for thieves and murderers
and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as offenders against
society, how much more would they be most justly punished who by sacrificing
to the ministers of evil give them food which maintains them in the region
near the earth..." Exhortation to Martyrdom, P. 425, Ibid.
Animal Sacrifices Are
a Reason for Natural Disasters Caused by God.
(The author in footnote
21 on the above page states: "For sacrifices as the food of daemons, cf.
my note on Origen, contra Celsum, III, 28; for the view that they cause
earthly disasters such as famine, drought, flood, and earthquake, cf. contra
Celsum, VIII, 31.")