Abraham's Test: Would You Pass?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ There was an SVU episode about that a few years ago...

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

A more secular question might be something along the lines of if you knew your kid was going to grow up and become Hitler would you kill him?

No.

Because you know and now you can shape his future to become better.

Even if you couldn't...killing a child for something that have yet to do is horrible.

Okay different version. Suppose your kid was Thanos and he had the Infinity Guantlet and he was going to snap his fingers and kill half the universe, and the Living Tribunal gives you his power, but says you have to personally kill him, do you do it?

Point is the situation is unavoidable, then what do you do?

 

[Jetfire]

Okay different version. Suppose your kid was Thanos and he had the Infinity Guantlet and he was going to snap his fingers and kill half the universe, and the Living Tribunal gives you his power, but says you have to personally kill him, do you do it?

Point is the situation is unavoidable, then what do you do?

No. I can't explain why...but no.

 

[Captain Ice]

God wouldn't do that. He knows my heart, and doesn't need me to kill anyone. I have nothing to prove. So the question is meaningless.

He knew Abraham's heart as well as he knows any of ours and yet he still asked. What's to keep him from asking you anyway? Therefore the question is not meaningless.

 

[Jan]

Considering we do not live in Old Testament times (when things were just a wee bit different), the question is not relevant to today's society. Apples to oranges.

How so? God required a blood sacrifice from Abraham and god required the exact same thing from Jesus. One Old Testament, one New Testament, still the same barbaric notion that blood cleanses sin.

Jan

 

[SVD]

If I had a child, and some force was telling me to kill it, I'd be more inclined to believe that either (a) I was going mad, or (b) it was an entity like Q trying to trick me.

Personally, I think the Creator has bigger things to worry about than what's going on on this insignificant rock. He's got the aftermath of his Big Bang to keep track of.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Hell no.

 

[DonIago]

Not to say that I would do what God asked, but it seems as though people don't quite understand what actually having faith in a higher power might ultimately entail. Specifically that it may mean doing things just because said power has asked you to do them, without providing a reason or necessarily making sense.

Being an Agnostic, I'd tend to not trust my own senses if I heard a voice telling me 'Hey, you, go kill your son for me.'

BTW, didn't Abraham's son (Isaac?) say himself that Abraham should do it?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Any god that would ask me to sacrifice my own child neither deserves my worship or has the right to test or judge me for anything. God failed my test just by giving the order.

If he wants to punish me, so be it. All that proves is that he is powerful and commands people through threats, not that he's worthy of respect or adoration.

 

[Colonel Green]

Forget a divine request, I'd kill my kid just for giving me lip. The bible commands it, so any good Christian would have to, right?

 

[drychlick]

i would do it because he GOD i or my son would not be here if not for HIM! any way even if i kill my son would be in heaven! A good place even GOD need to know people know he still the BOSS!

 

[ThankQ]

Any god that would ask me to sacrifice my own child neither deserves my worship or has the right to test or judge me for anything. God failed my test just by giving the order.

If he wants to punish me, so be it. All that proves is that he is powerful and commands people through threats, not that he's worthy of respect or adoration.

That is what we call a Christian. Not you but one who is the exactly opposed to you. I pray that someone like you counts himself among the athiests.

 

[Daneel]

Well, I'm agnostic, so I don't really believe in any deity. Hypothetically, though, if there was a God, and it told me to sacrifice my child, how would I respond?

I would tell God to fuck off.

 

[ThankQ]

So far, assuming the poll results are accurate, over 50% of Christains would tell God to go fuck himself if he tried to take one of their children.

This is both wonderful news and frighteningly confusing at the same tim.e

 

[Jetfire]

Thou shalt not kill.

How could God ask someone to break his own commandment? I wouldn't.

 

[RoJoHen]

Thou shalt not kill.

How could God ask someone to break his own commandment? I wouldn't.

Well, his commandments weren't around yet. He was still figuring shit out.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Any god that would ask me to sacrifice my own child neither deserves my worship or has the right to test or judge me for anything. God failed my test just by giving the order.

If he wants to punish me, so be it. All that proves is that he is powerful and commands people through threats, not that he's worthy of respect or adoration.

That is what we call a Christian. Not you but one who is the exactly opposed to you. I pray that someone like you counts himself among the athiests.

Not necessarily. There are Christians who are able to look at the story of Abraham as an allegory about faith and obedience to God and not a literal event. I don't have a problem with that. It's still a troubling story to be sure, but not as bad then.

But to believe it was a literal event and then to say you would follow in Abraham's footsteps and prepare to sacrifice your own child is some scary shit, both for the fact that you would worship a God who would ask that of you, and for the fact that you would actually try to follow through with it. Plus, how the hell would you know it's not just an auditory or visual hallucination caused by schizophrenia or something?

I thought God was about forgiveness for sin? If you refused his order, wouldn't that be like committing any other sin against his orders, which Christians (and others) do all the time with the expectation of being forgiven? So why obey this one? What makes this more important than all the other orders you break and sins you commit? I mean, if you were going to break some of God's orders anyway, I think the killing your child order would be a good place to start. Just say "Sorry Lord, I can't kill my own child." What, God won't forgive you if your sin is love for your child and inability to commit murder?

Since God is apparently not above jerking Abraham around and pulling the divine variant of the "shoot this guy with an unloaded gun to prove your not an undercover agent" test from every mafia and spy movie, how did Abraham know that the test was not God's way of saying "Holy crap, you were actually going to kill your child for me? You're crazy ass is not getting into Heaven."

Anyway, yes, I'm an atheist. You could probably guess that from the colorful metaphor I used while parodying God in the paragraph above.

 

[Wicca who Wonta]

Thou shalt not kill.

How could God ask someone to break his own commandment? I wouldn't.

Agreed!

I don't think that a god that expects me to kill my child deserves my affection.

 

[captcalhoun]

My God wouldn't ask me to do that. My God wields a big scary hammer, throws lightning around and likes beer.

My God is Ultimate Thor.

 

[Snaploud]

No way in hell...

I can see three possibilities in such a scenario:

1) It's not really god telling me to kill the boy (most likely).

2) God doesn't actually want me to kill the boy but is in fact testing me to make sure that I wouldn't do such an immoral act (unlikely and unnecessary).

3) God does want me to kill the boy and is therefore worthy of neither respect nor worship.

I'm Agnostic, by the way (with Buddhist tendencies and a Jewish cultural background).