Replies: 5 people have rocked the mic!

What about Abraham and Ismail?

Posted by Paddy @ 11/23/2004 02:36 PM EST

You mean Abraham and Isaac? That was a specific test for Abraham, and God did not allow Abraham to actually sacrifice Isaac. Several hundred years later, though, when God gave the law to Moses, he specifically told man that human sacrifice was not acceptable.

Posted by BR @ 11/23/2004 08:54 PM EST

Unless he meant when Abraham sent Haggar and Ishmael out of the camp into the wilderness. That wasn't God though and God even told Ishmael he would make him a force that all mankind would fight against. Today the decendants of him are called Arabs. The decendants of his brother Isaac are the Jews.

Posted by Jim @ 11/23/2004 11:13 PM EST

Sorry, Abraham and Issac in the Bible (it's Ismail in the Koran--hard to keep all these religions straight). I know the story, which is why I mentioned it in response to your post "God doesn't call people to sacrifice children to Him..." which, of course, is exactly what he did ask of Abraham, and why I mentioned it.

Posted by Paddy @ 11/24/2004 08:32 AM EST

Gee, Paddy, for an agnostic, you sure are up on you ancient religious texts. As I mentioned in my comment reply back to you, God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (which he didn't allow to happen) came before he gave the law to Moses forbiding child sacrifice. So I suppose you could make a case for people who sacrificed their kids before the law was given, that if God asked them to sacrifice their children, they wouldn't know that to be contrary to God's nature. But now we have God saying "child sacrifice is detestable to me." So people since the law was given are without excuse.

Posted by BR @ 11/24/2004 07:22 PM EST