God wants to make sure that the Hebrews will never commit human sacrifice. Cruel to Abraham and Isac, pretty neat for all the people who avoided being sacrificed as a result.
Or maybe just the Hebrews want to avoid human sacrifice and they tell that story to sink the point home: their own ancestor could have been killed, let’s not do that to anyone.
Oh for sure. But just looking at it at face value, it brings up some weird questions about the metaphysics involved.
Considering the omnipotence factor, he could’ve just let them know not to sacrifice people some other way, too.
Of course it’s just a myth meant to instruct people in virtues (piety, obedience, not sacrificing people) but there are a great many folks who view the bible as literally true and for whom this line of argumentation would pose some issues.
The value is shows me is that you should do whatever god tells you, even human sacrifice - not to not do human sacrifice. I think you may be looking at it too optimistically lol
I mean, in a world with a god like that, the only rational course of action would be to do what they say. The concept of truly infinite suffering makes that the only rational choice.
That’s why piety is a virtue for Christians, first and foremost. Being a “good person” by their metrics is a byproduct of obeying god since god determines what is good.
God wants to make sure that the Hebrews will never commit human sacrifice. Cruel to Abraham and Isac, pretty neat for all the people who avoided being sacrificed as a result. Or maybe just the Hebrews want to avoid human sacrifice and they tell that story to sink the point home: their own ancestor could have been killed, let’s not do that to anyone.
Oh for sure. But just looking at it at face value, it brings up some weird questions about the metaphysics involved.
Considering the omnipotence factor, he could’ve just let them know not to sacrifice people some other way, too.
Of course it’s just a myth meant to instruct people in virtues (piety, obedience, not sacrificing people) but there are a great many folks who view the bible as literally true and for whom this line of argumentation would pose some issues.
The value is shows me is that you should do whatever god tells you, even human sacrifice - not to not do human sacrifice. I think you may be looking at it too optimistically lol
I mean, in a world with a god like that, the only rational course of action would be to do what they say. The concept of truly infinite suffering makes that the only rational choice.
That’s why piety is a virtue for Christians, first and foremost. Being a “good person” by their metrics is a byproduct of obeying god since god determines what is good.