Do you have to be there for the end of the download?

I'm getting a migraine. Wanna go home.

Of course killing his son did not go against all Abraham knew about the world. Child sacrifice was not uncommon at the time in that region.

I’m not sure why similar demands for child sacrifice by polytheistic gods are relevant here. The story clearly is written to show that Abraham faces a difficult dilemma. Indeed, the story is chosen to represent the most difficult dilemma that a person could face: Submit to God’s will or protect my child? Abraham is admired because his submission to God is so complete that he is willing to kill his son. If killing his son were a mundane request, then the story would have no meaning. You might as well have Abraham hear a thundering voice saying “I AM YOUR GOD AND I DEMAND THAT YOU GO UP ON THE MOUNTAIN AND ENJOY THE VIEW FOR AWHILE! MAYBE PICK A FEW BERRIES! I COMMAND IT!” Then Abraham could have founded three major religions on the basis of his very reverent berry picking.

yeah, I need to disconnect and shut down before I leave.

I need to disconnect and shut down before I leave.

Ah, that's annoying. We're allowed to lock our workstations. Though they don't love it.

Good and evil, on the other hand, get a lot fuzzier in my lexicon. They act a lot more absolute.

Yup. A philosopher called Moore proposed an argument in the early 20th century (that I find fairly compelling) that the definitional content of the term 'good' can't be specified, because whatever someone proposed as a definition can be questioned whether that really is good in all cases. If not, then it might be regarded as good by people, and they can call it good and we seem to understand what they mean (more or less), but it doesn't really do as a definition of good.

I tend to view it similarly to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The more absolute we treat good and evil, the less we can profitably talk about what they actually mean. (Funnily enough, I'm also then quite comfortable in regard good and evil as being absolute, and one of my favourite philosophical works is called "Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception", but this isn't about trying to say that this or that is good.)

it's done. I'm outta here.

Bye Msbelle!

kidnap-a-nonconsenting-straight-man-and-force-him-into-an-unholy-union.

Do you have to be a gay man to do this?

Ever since I found out that one of the "voices" of the old testament never mentions Isaac again after the sacrifice, I've been more weirded out by the whole story.

Not that that affects how people should interpret it today, of course. It's just this historically strange thing.

Oh, and another point the sacrifice story maks is that because Abraham made that hard choice the way he did, God isn't going to demand it of any one else. The substitution of the ram is made for all time. Heck we don't even sacrifice the ram anymore. So you don't have to necessarily decide that you would act the same as Abraham in order to follow his religion any more than you have to be ready to withstand deprivation through a winter in Valley Forge to be a patriotic American. It's not demanded of you.

The story clearly is written to show that Abraham faces a difficult dilemma. Indeed, the story is chosen to represent the most difficult dilemma that a person could face: Submit to God’s will or protect my child?

I am amused you picked this story to highlight, because that story was a huge reason why I could never become a Christian. I felt a bit better about it after my Religious Studies teacher in college explicated it to us as an allegory of "would you do anything for a God you believe in?"-- but I could never really get with Abraham sacrificing Isaac, even though I guess it turned out for the better. I also felt that it was rather unfair how Jacob (and his son Joseph, actually) seemed to get everything, even when they didn't seem to deserve it. Esau seemed like he got a raw deal.

Esau seemed like he got a raw deal.

Not to mention, hairy back.