What is the phoenician religion?

Answer 1

As Canaanites, the Phoenicians practiced a very base religion centered around the fertility god Baal; it involved sodomy, bestiality, and ceremonial prostitution, as well as abhorrent rites of child sacrifice. (See PICTURE, Vol. 1, p. 739; CANAAN, CANAANITE No. 2 [Conquest of Canaan by Israel].) The Phoenician city of Baalbek (c. 65 km [40 mi] NE of Beirut) became one of the great centers of polytheistic worship in the ancient world; in Roman times great temples to various gods and goddesses were erected there, the ruins of which can be seen today.

Answer 2

The religion itself has no name, just as with the religion of the ancient Greeks or Romans. Many of the Phoenician gods can however be traced back to the ancient Canaanite religion practiced in the region that is now covered by Israel, Lebanon and Syria. As in many other ancient religions, there were a sizable number of gods who were there to protect against dangers and sponsor activities like the arts, war, crop growth, trade etc. Phoenician religion believed in an afterlife where the souls of the dead went to. The god still well-known today because of its mention in the Bible is Baäl, god of fertility and energy.

Stories about the 'cruel rituals' like human sacrifice in Phoenician religion are still mentioned, but almost all these stories originate from Roman sources. But the Romans as sworn enemies of the Phoenicians had every reason to try and depict them and their religion as 'barbarian' and therefore worthy of destruction.