In the modern world, we usually encounter gods who are benevolent at least toward their own followers(although often hateful of the followers of other gods or minority groups). Some humans have believed in gods that were not benevolent at all. "Among pre-columbian Mayan and Mexicans, for example, there appears to have been no entirely benevolent deity, and all were feared(to greater or lesser degrees) for their ability to bring death on almost anyone, almost anywhere".*
Chaak was a Thunder God of the Lowland Maya, and one who required ritual sacrifice:
The New York Times--The Grim Story of Maya Blue
Quote:
When the skies looked too much like Maya blue — cloudless and dry — the Maya sometimes selected an unlucky victim to be painted this color and sacrificed to Chaak in hopes that the rains would follow.
An account by a 16th-century Spanish priest described rituals where victims were stripped, painted and thrown onto a stone altar where their hearts, still beating, were cut out.
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Quetzalcoatal was a god who appeared as a feathered serpent, and among the
Toltec required ritual human sacrifices. THe sacrifices were done in the same manner as those for Chaak, with the victims placed on a stone altar, and their hearts removed with an Obsidian blade.
*quoted from S. Atran's "In God's We Trust"
