Yes they were. I'm also glad they're gone.
My quibble was in the romancing of murder by calling it sacrifice.
Sidenote(blatant name drop): I got to talk with Mel for a while after he shot that movie. I didn't know the name of the movie at that time but he said he had just gotten back from shooting in the jungle. He said he almost died from some disease there.
Wow...
Well, they Aztecs and of course other fiends thought they were appeasing some “god” by their slaughter and torture.