Do people really believe in sin eaters?

Answer 1

While I do not know the movie you may be referring to, in the "olden days," there were people who were "sin eaters." However, if this concept was twisted by a movie's idea of what Sin Eaters were, then that will color your thinking.

According to Wikipedia, the term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a deceased person, thus absolving his or her soul and allowing that person to rest in peace. Sin-eating is a form of religious magic, part of the study of folklore. This is similar to the religious ceremony of the scape-goat which was once a part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism.

This practice was said to have been practiced in parts of England and Scotland, and allegedly survived until modern times in Wales. Traditionally, it is performed by a beggar and certain villages maintained their own sin-eaters. They would be brought to the dying person's bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the breast of the dying and pass a bowl of ale to him over the corpse. After praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and remove the bread from the breast and eat it, the act of which would remove the sin from the dying person and take it into himself.

It's very similar to the Lord's Supper, where Christians consume the body/bread and blood/wine of Christ, as a sin of the atonement for sin of Christ's death and resurrection.

I hope this helps you understand exactly what Sin Eaters WERE.

As for BELIEVING in them, that's your choice. As for me and my family, we DON'T believe!

Answer 2

Do people believe? Some do.

Then again, we could apply Pascal's Wager here.

Answer 3

Whatever it is I'm sure it is very real now that it was imagined into your universe.

Answer 4

No... it was a pretty trippy movie though