Re: Is it a sacrifice?
Chumly wrote:Is it a sacrifice to give up your life for a cause, given that death is an inevitability in any case?
Further, given that death is the cessation of all experience, how can death be a sacrifice if there is no awareness of the loss?
The term "sacrifice" probably has more meaning to the survivor and is useful as a subjective term. Did Jesus willingly give up his life? Probably not, but his sacrifice as such remains a central theme of Christianity.
The plains indians relied on the bison for most of there necesities, and it formed the center of their religions. They definitely believed that the bison sacrificed their lives for them, and they performed elaborate rituals in their honor, whereas the bison themselves would have avoided death at all cost.