{"id":26675,"date":"2014-10-22T09:11:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=26675"},"modified":"2014-10-22T09:11:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T13:11:04","slug":"a-test-it-is-better-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/a-test-it-is-better-to-fail.html","title":{"rendered":"A Test it is Better to Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Rachel Held Evans<\/a> blogged about the story of Abraham trying to sacrifice Isaac, on the same day that I was scheduled to speak to a group of local artists<\/a> about the story. She said what I personally consider the most appropriate response:<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to think that even if those demands thundered from the heavens in a voice that sounded like God\u2019s, I\u2019d have sooner been struck dead than obeyed them.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Neil Carter<\/a> commented on the post, and reflected on the implications of religious attempts to defend Abraham, and along with him the stories about\u00a0Canaanite genocide and other such details. He writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\"MoserWhen I tell people I\u2019m an atheist, the most common (and most exasperating) response I get is: \u201cWell, without God, where do you get your morals from?\u201d\u00a0 Inevitably they will tell me that I cannot have an objective framework for morality if I don\u2019t believe in spirits and afterlives (which is rubbish), but the irony is that between the two of us, my challenger is actually the one who cannot categorically condemn any moral choice we could make. John Piper will tell you in a heartbeat that killing your child is totally legit if God tells you to do it, because the Bible tells him so.<\/p>\n

In the end, if whatever God tells you to do is right, then morality is fundamentally relative.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve decided on that way of thinking, it inevitably devolves into a theological debate about God\u2019s feelings.\u00a0 This is a highly subjective discussion, of course, since one of the key tenets of monotheism is that if there is a God, you\u2019re probably not him.\u00a0 So how is it that you feel qualified to determine what he wants and what he doesn\u2019t (and for that matter, why it has to be a \u201che\u201d)?\u00a0 It\u2019s your word against another man\u2019s word, not God\u2019s word against everyone else\u2019s.\u00a0 You can try saying \u201cbut the Bible says,\u201d except that\u2019s really the word of more people just like you.\u00a0 Any attempt to deny this leads to untenable absurdity because the Bible isn\u2019t even consistent with itself. \u00a0Biblical writers didn\u2019t all see everything the same way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Libby Anne<\/a> also mentioned the post, indicating that \u201ctalking back to God\u201d is not only Biblical, but it is something highlighted in the Jewish tradition. It isn\u2019t a rejection of God (despite what some of Rachel Held Evans\u2019 critics have said). Indeed, the Jewish tradition has a long history of being puzzled about why Abraham didn\u2019t discuss this with God in the way he discussed and debated and bargained when God told him about Sodom and Gomorrah.<\/p>\n

Of related interest, Martin LaBar<\/a> blogged about Isaac and Jesus, while\u00a0Jeremy Smith<\/a> blogged about looking for the minority report in the Bible.<\/p>\n

At the workshop I mentioned at the start of this post, another presenter surveyed a wide range of art related to the story of the binding of Isaac, including the depiction in the recent Bible miniseries. Can you honestly watch this without flinching or being disturbed?<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uJ4H3Qgk-Kw<\/a>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Held Evans blogged about the story of Abraham trying to sacrifice Isaac, on the same day that I was scheduled to speak to a group of local artists about the story. She said what I personally consider the most appropriate response: I\u2019d like to think that even if those demands thundered from the heavens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":24768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[298,456,3840,5398,5677,7682,8289,9891,10154,10671],"class_list":["post-26675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis-bible","tag-abraham","tag-akedah","tag-genesis-bible","tag-isaac","tag-jesus","tag-morality","tag-objective","tag-rachel-held-evans","tag-relativism","tag-sacrifice"],"yoast_head":"\nA Test it is Better to Fail<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rachel Held Evans blogged about the story of Abraham trying to sacrifice Isaac, on the same day that I was scheduled to speak to a group of local artists\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/a-test-it-is-better-to-fail.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Test it is Better to Fail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rachel Held Evans blogged about the story of Abraham trying to sacrifice Isaac, on the same day that I was scheduled to speak to a group of local artists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/a-test-it-is-better-to-fail.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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