The story of Abraham and his sacrifice of Isaac told in Genesis 22:1-19 is illustrative of how religious people should hold their faith, how they should behave with regards to faith, namely by not questioning a single word of “god”. Even if it means killing their own blood, their own kith and kin.
However, we know that that isn’t how believers would behave, because one, of the times we live in and two the evolution our mind set has gone through since that time. This demonstrates how this story and the grotesque act detailed therein would be unacceptable in this day and age, a change that goes against the tenets that the bible or torah is the word of god, because for it to be the word of god, it makes sense and indeed believers state that it is the word, that it must stand for all times.
As we can see, not so. Which mother (who is sane) in this day and age would allow her child to be slaughtered? Which father (again who is sane) would stab his own son with a knife because god said so? If you heard a voice telling you to sacrifice your child wouldn’t you think it’s the devil instead (if you’re religious)? Wouldn’t you think it might be some sort of hallucinatory experience? Wouldn’t you look around to make sure it wasn’t some sort of sick joke or trick by someone?
I’m pretty sure that in and around 2300 – 1000 BCE, such an act would have constituted the highest piety. In our day it would constitute a criminal act, from a deranged human being. And therefore for the most part this act would be questioned even if a disembodied voice requested it.
Therefore based on these behavioral differences from Bronze age to modern era, we can state that the scriptures on faith are basically being ignored. Believers today have essentially broken their connection to this act of faith, but have rewired it so they only have to refer to the piety of Abraham. It is essentially putting blinders on.
The act of Abraham of tying his son up, placing him (his son had asked about the sacrificial lamb) on the altar, and then raising the knife over his helpless body, if analyzed within psychology, this would no doubt have been confirmed to have caused some sort of mental and emotional trauma on Isaac. So even if there is no direct physical harm, there surely was the aforementioned which tends to eventually affect the physical.
Then comes one of the more ridiculous lines with regards to this matter. Genesis 22:12 “Do not lay your hand on the boy, neither shall you harm him: for now I know that you are a man who reveres God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
God had to prove to himself that Abraham was faithful to him. What type of god is this? He’s been said to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, why does he state to just know this (making a story up, is not acceptable)? Another question that can arise is, was this really the JudeoChristian god of love, or the god who knows when even one hair falls from your head? Maybe it’s just the Judeo god, but that distinction isn’t allowed dogmatically.
See, what can be seen in these texts is how god himself evolves, based on the writers perception of how god is or was. In the old testament, he hates everybody, hates Israel too, every once in a while. It shows how he loves the smell of blood from women, children and even animals from other cultures. In the new testament, he is just a loving and condemning god.