No matter how many centuries the story has been told, or how many million times the Old Testament has been read, people still ask why did God reject the offerings of Cain and accept those of Abel? Why didn’t He just accept both of them? Was it because God-who is always imagined anthropomorphically-preferred the ‘firstlings of the flock and of their fat’ to the ‘fruit of the ground’?

In religious sacrificial ceremonies, there is ongoing