Critics of the tale, of which I am one, call out that his makes God out to be basically psychopathic, and a Being who causes misery for those that follow him for no other reason than to 'test' them or prove their faith. I don't believe this is so, and I don't actually think this story, as presently told, has either God or Abraham come out looking very good.
Shortly after reading Bill’s thoughts on this story, I went on YouTube and found a new Ward Radio video up, posted just eight minutes before I watched it. The hosts, who are strait-laced orthodox follow-the-prophet Mormons, have been growing increasingly theologically edgy of late, frequently joking that what they say on the podcast might get them excommunicated, and in this episode they, too, question the Binding of Isaac story and propose that the command to murder Isaac may have come from the devil rather than from God.
The timing is striking — the same biblical story challenged in two very different corners of online Mormondom, within the space of a few hours.
2 comments:
William,
I personally have always thought that critical thinking i.e. questioning
( asking WHY) is essential for our (humans collectively)
growth: both physically/worldly and spiritually.
That's not to say that I don't believe in having faith,
because I absolutely do, but I personally have faith in what
I believe because of knowledge gained
( from a vast spectrum of ideologies,
critical thinking (connecting the dots ), personal experience
and most importantly trusting my intuition as I believe we find
the truth from our soul, connected to God ) ,
...and not because someone says:
" It is what ''we''(or I or the experts) ... say it is'.
Case in point, I have been researching my ancestry for several years
now and what an eye opening experience that has been and validates
my point, at least to me, that not everything we think we know or
were told... or were sold...is Truth.
Of course that's just my humble opinion.
I agree with WW. That's overall a pretty sh*tty god to worship if you ask me. The idea that it was the devil seems plausible although it doesn't speak too well of Abraham in either case. I lean more toward the idea that it's a very corrupted tale.
It's fairly close to the tale in the Silmarillion of Aule's work in creating dwarves without Eru's permission. Aule is at first scolded and he then lifts his hammer to destroy them. Eru at the last second stops him and decides to instead bless his effort by putting life into his creation. No angel or ram or deceitful/manipulative God but the bones of the story are still there. So my guess is the OT tale is a corrupted version of what's in the Silmarillion.
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