Editing Moloch (section)

===As social or political allegory===
[[File:Museo nazionale del Cinema - Cabiria (Turin) crop.jpg|thumb|Moloch statue from [[Giovanni Pastrone]]'s ''[[Cabiria]]'' (1914), [[National Museum of Cinema]] (Turin)]]

In modern times, a metaphorical meaning of Moloch as a destructive force or system that demands sacrifice, particularly of children, has become common. Beginning with [[Samuel Laing (science writer)|Samuel Laing]]'s ''National Distress'' (1844), the modern city is often described as a Moloch, an idea found also in [[Karl Marx]]; additionally, war often comes to be described as Moloch.{{sfn|Boysen|Ruwe|2021}}

The [[Munich Cosmic Circle]] (c. 1900) used Moloch to describe a person operating under cold [[rationalism]], something they viewed as causing the degeneration of Western civilization.{{sfn|Becking|2014}} Conservative Christians often rhetorically equate [[abortion]] with the sacrifice of children to Moloch.{{sfn|Chryssides|2021}} [[Bertrand Russell]], on the other hand, used Moloch to describe a kind of cruel, primitive religion in ''A Freeman's Worship'' (1923); he then used it to attack religion more generally.{{sfn|Becking|2014}}