Child Sacrifice

4 Pages 1024 Words

Child sacrifice was a part of the Hebrew Bible. Whether or not you believe that the actual act of child sacrifice occurred, it is still a part of the bible and part of what created religion. In particular, in genesis 22 Abraham was instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. Even though the sacrifice never occurred, the asking and willingness between God and Abraham play a major role in these religions. The three major religions that we are studying: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all agree that this event occurred. One thing that you must ask when discussing child sacrifice is how someone would willingly kill his or her child. One major consideration that you have to think of is the time period. Child sacrifice today is something that is not condoned upon. Even though many religions that people strongly believe have originated from child sacrifice.
Abraham believed in a God. Abraham would do anything for “this” God that he believed in. We know this because he was going to sacrifice his son, Isaac. If not for the angel that had stopped Abraham, he would have committed the sacrifice. For this reason you have to question Abraham and you have to question God. Was God simply testing Abraham’s faith with no intention of harming Isaac, or does God support child sacrifice? To answer this you have to know if child sacrifice occurred and if God truly believed in it. This question cannot truly be answered, but people have different theories. You also have to wonder why Abraham is thought of as the father of monotheism. Is this because he was willing to follow God’s command even though his command was technically murder? In order to answer this you have to consider someone’s faith to their religion and their strong belief and faith that what God is asking them to do is for a reason and God’s reason is correct.
Without the binding of Isaac however, the three main religions could not have developed the way the...