Would You Kill My Kids? Questioning Orders from God
Tomboy Mom writes:
I do not believe in or worship Yahweh. You can consider me equivalent to an Amalekite or a Hittite in that respect. Furthermore, I’m a lesbian. That’s right, you can consider me a total Sodomite if you like. Finally, I have 3 children. I do not teach them to fear or worship Yahweh. Quite the contrary, I tell them that everyone needs to decide for themselves, and that I do not believe that God exists. My question is this, suppose hypothetically that God were to command you to slay not only me but them, would you do it? Why or why not?
This really isn’t a hypothetical question. Believers might object that their god would never demand such a thing, but that’s a flimsy excuse for ignoring a difficult issue. The Bible is full of stories about god commanding believers to go out and kill their enemies. The slaughter the occurs in the Old Testament is extensive and gruesome.
If the believer doesn’t accept this as literal and doesn’t accept such tales as exercising any authority over them (not an unreasonable position), there is still the story of Abraham who was ordered to kill his first-born son. A person might reject the historicity of this story as well, but what can’t so readily be rejected is his position as the “father of faith” for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He is an example of absolute obedience to God and this is not something which can readily re-interpreted.
The above question opens a huge can of worms for believers, which is why I think many simply try to avoid dealing with it. If you think that you have received such an order but believe that it’s from Satan rather from God, or merely a delusion, then how can you believe that anyone else who has claimed to received communication from God also wasn’t deluded or tricked? If you accept that such an order is genuine, how can you dismiss anyone else as being deluded?
If God really is the author and source of morality, then disobedience would be immoral — but I think that few believers would actually obey orders to kill. This suggests that they don’t really believe that their god is the source of morality and that it’s possible to exercise moral evaluation and judgment without reference to theism and religion. Those who would obey, however, are demonstrating that strict adherence to one’s religion is actually detrimental to moral reasoning and behavior.
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i notice you attempt to use scripture or accounts of orders said by God in the old testement yet why do you only use partiality of the text….you plainly know the story i mean you must have read it…right??? without reading it you would not have a valid aguement whether God was an author or iniquity or a living loving God…if you truely read the text, the fact wasn’t i want you to kill your child but to show God your faith, you see issac abrahams son was a blessing from God and something Araham had desired, God ordered abraham to sacrifice his son up to him. but see thinkin with only the wisdom of men which is foolishness to God you would think WOW God is evil….but yet God did this to ensure Abrahams faith was in him..and reading on in the story u see abraham is about to sacrifice issac and is stopped by the lord who then saw abrahams faith and was seen righteous and blessed. so to say God is a violent is foolish He is what he proclaims a King of kings God of gods….Now i ask you non-believer what war had God imposed for nothing??? or was it to free from captivity??? think of the africans in slavery you who blaphemes YOUR LORD..would it be right to keep them oppressed in slavery because killing the owners full of iniquity would be wrong because god cant kill no….God is a just God…he freed them from captivity and did not slaughter people no not like how u put it like he slaughtered innocent people but people thet treated others like animals and animals that formed armies to keep them as animals so like there is a reaction for every action those enslaved where blessed with freedom and those engaging them were punished…..if you have any questions i am always available….go a head you can call directly to my cell 602-397-1531 i fear nothing because God is living and he is not my God but our God….God of all you can not get an answer by questioning but by asking questions mr theologian i am 19 from the projects from phx; AZ and i have every reason not to believe in CHRIST BUT I TELL U I ALSO HAVE EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE AND GOD IS TELLING YOU THERE WILL BE A TIME YOU WILL REALIZE AND RIGHT NOW HE IS GIVING YOU ALL AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN OF HIM AND HIS WAYS…THE NUMBER IS THERE…..I AM HERE….I LOVE U AND IT SADDENS ME TO SEE YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR WISDOM AND LOVE TO DOUBT BUT I TELL YOU WILL SEE AS I….YOU WILL SEE AS I….REPENT FOR THE LORD IS TRUE AND WORTHY OF PRAISE I AM A LIVING MIRACLE…YOU ASK TO SEE A MIRICLE HERE I AM COME SEE GOD S WORK AT HAND AND LOOSEN YOUSELF FROM THE CLUTCHES OF HATE, DOUBT, AND BONDAGE AND BE FREE…..602 397 1531 Ask 4 Art Gomez ….