The story of Abraham and Isaac, in the Old Testament, is one of the best known in the Bible. Abraham and his wife can’t have a child until old age, then miraculously they have a son, and then God tells Abraham to sacrifice his long-awaited child, which he accepts without question. At the last possible moment, God tells Abraham to stop, as it was all just a test, and to sacrifice an animal instead.
Incredibly enough, Abraham’s actions are considered “good” by most Christians, even though we probably value human life quite higher than we did thousands — or even hundreds — of years ago. However, due to precisely the latter fact, many people explain that part of the bible as “not literal”, “just an allegory”, or “simply a moral lesson”.
Vjack of Atheist Revolution addresses that contradiction: even if that is just “an allegory”, it’s an allegory to what? Certainly, in modern moral terms, there’s nothing to learn from a father ready to kill his infant child. Besides, many Christians don’t believe it to be “just an allegory”: many fundamentalists, especially in America, believe in the Bible (with all its absurdities, atrocities and contradictions) literally.
As for choosing which parts of the Bible to take literally and which ones not to, I have addressed it in the past, such as here. In short: if you accept that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then, for a human to decide which parts come from God and which don’t, or to decide which are literal and which aren’t, is an act of supreme arrogance, it’s believing you “know better than God”.
But what about the morality of this tale, itself?
Consider the following: if you had a young child and a god, or an angel, told you, in no uncertain terms, and with no possibility of it being merely a dream or hallucination, to sacrifice — to kill — that child of yours, what would you do?
Theists, here — at least, the more fundamentalist ones, who believe that nothing is important in life except pleasing God — would say that they would indeed kill their child, without hesitation. Because, to them, morality is obeying God, nothing more.
But suppose that it wasn’t God at all, but that you lived under a dictatorship, and it was the cruel dictator General Fang who ordered you to kill your child in front of him, to prove your loyalty to him and to the State. Or else.
What would you do? And, more importantly, what would you think of General Fang’s moral standing?
My guess is that, assuming you didn’t do so already, you would consider him the most evil of beings. A sadistic, controlling, dictatorial monster, who treats people as mere objects.
No matter how much Christians attempt to redefine “morality” so that it’s just an arbitrary thing, the pleasing of one powerful being’s whims, the fact remains that God’s supposed actions were morally monstrous — just replace him with a human being, and note how disgusted you’ll probably be. And the fact that he stopped the “test” at the last moment doesn’t really change anything.
The only proper action for Abraham, or for anyone in his place, would be to spit back in God’s face in disgust, to refuse to follow such a despotic, evil monster anymore. Whatever the consequences. Such a monster doesn’t deserve worship, regardless of his power.
Yet, Abraham — the revered patriarch of the three great monotheistic religions — proved himself no more than a craven coward, a disgusting sycophant, a man without the slightest sense of morality, of right and wrong, who simply wants to be on the “strong” side, to “please” the one in power. Much like a man who wants to impress a Mafia don. And yet he’s widely respected by today’s religions. What does that say about the morality of those?
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The moral of the story is too show that Abraham was a moral Christian because “morality is obeying God, nothing more.”. Again, it’s exactly what you say: It’s Christians “attempt to redefine “morality””. Just another stupid story for stupid people and their stupid ideas.
What is the moral of the following story: “Lot and his daughters camp out in a cave for a while. The daughters get their “just and righteous” father drunk, and have sexual intercourse with him, and each conceives and bears a son (wouldn’t you know it!). Just another wholesome family values Bible story. 19:30-38″ source: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/19.html#30
[quote post="253"]The moral of the story is too show that Abraham was a moral Christian because “morality is obeying God, nothing more.”[/quote]
Hate to tell you, but Abraham was a Jew. The first one, in fact. [OK, back then, they were called Hebrews, but whatever]
[quote post="253"]Consider the following: if you had a young child and a god, or an angel, told you, in no uncertain terms, and with no possibility of it being merely a dream or hallucination, to sacrifice — to kill — that child of yours, what would you do?[/quote]
I’d go visit a psychiatrist.
[quote post="253"]Theists, here — at least, the more fundamentalist ones, who believe that nothing is important in life except pleasing God [/quote]
And bringing in idiots into politics. And being idiots in politics. I have a gay friend who asked a fundamentalist xn if he [the xn] would kill him. He said “No, the Government should do that. Not me.”
Fucking monster.
I like to think that the moral of the story is that Abraham was testing God. He wanted to know if this Jahwe character had any moral standing. If Jahwe hadn’t stopped the sacrifice, he would not have been worshipable, and Abraham would have to look elsewhere.
Unfortunately that’s probably not what the writers intended. If they had any other intentions than promoting mindless obediance, they hid it well.
[quote post="253"]I like to think that the moral of the story is that Abraham was testing God.[/quote]
i always thought it was the other way around. can’t god read our minds? lol
A more interesting theory, which I’ve seen in another blog, is that Abraham failed the test: he was supposed to say “no way” to such an evil request, and instead displayed an absolute lack of backbone and morals. Supposedly, God never talked to him after that, only to Isaac.
But, of course, I very much doubt that that was what the writers intended… especially if you consider how cruel and evil God acts everywhere else in the OT.
The Abraham and Isaac story is one of my favs, not because it’s such a cheerful but of storytelling but because it’s one I keep going back to think over.
For me, it’s a story that expresses how fundamental the idea of obedience to God was to the ancient Hebrews. I’m not much of a fan of fellow christians who try to wring a moral message out of every piece of the bible…especially this one. Especially involving Abraham who was in general an asshole.