Zone1 One significant reason why many do not believe in religion, it is just too damn hard

[JoeB131]

As a small child, how far could you carry sixty pounds of wood? My point remains. Hatred is the reason to insistently find reasons to view God as the villain in every story. Let it go. God, too, has a point of view in each account. Out of His love, what is he teaching His people?

I'm not sure how God comes off as the good guy in that story.

Abraham waited his whole life for a son with Sarah (the child he had with Hagar or the children he would later have with Keturah just weren't as important). And of course, Sarah was his half-sister, which makes the whole thing extra icky.

And what does Yahweh do? He orders Abraham to murder his beloved son as an act of loyalty, and the dumb shit was about to go through with it. Man, talk about psychological torture.

I get that you are not pondering the information in the stories. To you, forty-two means nothing. To the Israelites it was reference to a curse. Keep in mind, a reference to fifty stars may immediately call a country to your mind, whereas it would mean nothing to people in Biblical times.

I'm reminded of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Doug Adams, where the answer to the ultimate question was "42"

 

[Hafar1014]

The Isaac allegory makes no sense to me either

 

[JoeB131]

The Isaac allegory makes no sense to me either

It does in a historical context where Bronze Age civilizations probably regularly practiced human sacrifice, especially child sacrifice, when they had too many mouths to feed, later Iron Age civilizations were horrified by it. So they needed to explain away why their Gods no longer demanded such behavior.

A comparable example in Greek Mythology is the story of Tantalus, who sacrificed his son Pelops as the main course at a feast for the Gods, but the Gods were so angry when they found out that they sent him to Tartarus, where he was punished by having food and drink always just out of reach.