Atheism, Ritual Human Sacrifice in the Bible, and EvilBible.com, part 1 of 5

True Freethinker will now consider their promulgations in the area of Ritual Human Sacrifice in the Bible.As aforementioned in the parsed essay about rape in the Bible we should again note that when considering any and every atheist condemnation of any action whatsoever it is of primary importance to keep in mind that they are expressing personal opinions about the acts they are condemning. They are merely expressing their personal preferences in the form of morality borrowed from the Judeo-Christian worldview. They are piling unfounded assertion, upon unfounded assertion, upon unfounded assertion, and building a tel of arguments from outrage, arguments from personal incredulity, arguments for embarrassment, etc.

Let us begin at the end of their page as evilbible.com author concludes by stating,

So the next time some Christian tells you about the “love of God”, show them this page and ask them “Why does God want me to burn animals and humans?”

Thus, let us consider the evilbible.com page. Note that indicative of evilbible.com author’s lack of knowledge of the Bible’s content, even on the most basic of basic levels, I must note that even if one completely grants the evilbible.com page it is still fallacious to state, “Why does God want me to…” evilbible.com’s author writes,

The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is filled with numerous stories of animal and human sacrifice. God, we are told, likes the pleasing aroma of burning flesh. Animal sacrifice is much more common than human sacrifice, but both occur and are “pleasing to the Lord”.

Yet, no New Testament examples of human sacrifice are offered. Evilbible.com’s author fails to note, or simply does not know something as basic as, God does not “want me to” because you are not an Israelite, living millennia ago in the theocratic land of Israel with the Temple and attending priesthood under the, and here is the key, “Old” covenant/testament.

As for the animal sacrifice I will simply suppose that evilbible.com’s author is a vegan-vegetarian; I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for seven years so I can dig it. For my part I will play the specieist and focus on going right down the line and consider each and every example of human sacrifice in the Bible as presented by evilbible.com’s author:

Genesis, the first book of the Bible, has Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son to God. “Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, whom you love so much – and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you.” (Genesis 22:1-18) Abraham takes his own son up on a mountain and builds an altar upon which to burn him. He even lies to his son and has him help build the altar. Then Abraham ties his son to the altar and puts a knife to his throat. He then hears God tell him this was just a test of his faith. However, God still wanted to smell some burnt flesh so he tells Abraham to burn a ram.
Even though he didn’t kill his son, it is still an incredibly cruel and evil thing to do. If Abraham did that today he would be in jail serving a long sentence as someone’s prison-b***. It amazes me how Christians see this story as a sign of God’s love. There is no love here, just pure unadulterated evil. [expletive censored]

There is quite a bit to deal with here.Firstly, let us get some inaccuracies out of the way:

1) Abraham does not lie to Isaac. Note that this was an assertion with no backing citation or quotation. The true, honest and scholarly skeptic will not just believe it but will note that Isaac states, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (v. 7-8). As it turns out, and as evilbible.com’s author rightly noted, Abraham does end up offering a ram.

2) Abraham did not put a knife to his throat. All that the text states is that, “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (v. 10)

It would be interesting to hear how an atheist would deem what Abraham did as “evil” besides relying on assertions of personal preference based arguments from outrage. One correct statement is that “If Abraham did that today he would be in jail…” That is because atheists claim that morality evolves and so they cannot condemn what Abraham was doing back when he was doing it but must, quite illogically and anti-evolutionarily, condemn him today for something that was not immoral when he did it. However, as we shall see, according to the dictates of Israel’s Law, the Torah, which would be promulgated after the time of Abraham this became a crime in Israel. This is precisely the point of the story, at least one of its many points. Back in Abraham’s day human sacrifice, even child sacrifice, was merely the worship system of the false gods de jour. It is no wonder that Abraham would not have even questioned it-it was standard operating procedure. Yet, God demonstrated then and there that He was not like that, He was not like the false gods and He would not accept human sacrifice. This is why Jews, by extension Christians and by further extension Muslims never practiced human sacrifice when worshipping the God of the Bible but only in the rare occasions when they fell away to worship the false gods.

There are also indications that Abraham knew quite well what was, ultimately, going to happen since he did state to the men traveling with them, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you”-they will both go and both come back. Note also the aforementioned reference to God providing a lamb. Evilbible.com appears to consider these lies but they are only lies if they were lies.

Interestingly, the New Testament states that Abraham did this “by faith” and that faith is not described in the fallacious Atheist Sunday School manner of belief without evidence but as a logical inference, the result of a syllogism:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense (Hebrews 11:17-19).

The syllogism runs thusly,

1) Abraham offered up Isaac.2) Of whom it had already been said that “In Isaac your seed shall be called” (aka through whom his lineage would continue).3) Concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.

Regardless of what you may think of this logic, it is logical nonetheless: Abraham knew that, somehow, his son would live.

But what is this about “in a figurative sense”? Immediately, it means that Isaac did not actually die. There is quite a bit to be stated in this regard as this text is saturated with symbolism.

In Genesis 22, Abraham is told by God to take his son, his only son, and sacrifice him. Abraham had two sons Isaac and Ishmael but God tells him to sacrifice his only son (this word for only is yachiyd: only, only one, solitary one, unique one, indivisible. I elucidate this point here). Abraham loved Isaac and gave him as a sacrifice. They travel, via donkey, for three days to the mountain where the sacrifice was to take place, for three days in Abraham’s mind his son was dead (yet, he trusted in God’s promise of making him the father of great nations).

Isaac caries on his back the wood on which he is to die. When Isaac asks where the sacrifice is, Abraham answers that God will provide Himself a sacrifice. Abraham is stopped from sacrificing Isaac yet, a sacrifice is made. They find a ram caught by his horns in the thicket. Abraham calls the place Adonai Yir’eh: Adonai will see to it or Adonai provides. On the mountain of the LORD it shall be provided or it shall be seen (v. 14).

God loves His son. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus was dead for three days. He carried the instrument of his death, the wooden cross, on his back. God provided the sacrifice, in the case of Abraham and Isaac God did not call off the sacrifice at all, instead He required that there be a substitute provided by God Himself, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…” (John 3:16) Jesus was “crowned” with thorns (thicket). The crucifixion took place on the very same mountain which centuries earlier Abraham said that God provided and would provide the sacrifice.1

Moreover, Moriah was the mount upon which Abraham met Melchizedek, the Priest-King, who “brought out bread and wine” (Genesis 14:18) reminiscent of communion. This is the Melchizedek who is likened to the future Messiah in the Old Testament and thus to Jesus in the New Testament (see Psalm 110:4; Hebrews ch. 5-7).Both were loved by their father, both offered themselves willingly, both carried wood up the hill for their sacrifice, both events took place on the same hill, both were delivered from death on the third day.Jesus referred to this incident as prophetic when he said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

Rabbinic writing Midrash Rabbah states the following at Genesis LVI:3 which comments on Genesis 22:6,

AND ABRAHAM TOOK THE WOOD OF THE BURNT-OFFERING (XXII, 6)-like one who carries his stake on his shoulder.
Footnote: “The stake on which he is to be executed.”

Rabbinic writing Midrash Pesikta Rabbati 40:6 states,

What is meant by Moriah? R. Simeon ben Yohai said: It is the Land which, if it were an arrow, would shoot up through the heavens directly to the heavenly altar. Here the word is derived from the stem shot through (yrh) (Exod. 19:13).

Concerning the suffering servant of Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52, 53, Raphael Patai; Noted anthropologist and Biblical scholar who taught Hebrew at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem writes:

The Aggada, the Talmudic legend, unhesitatingly identifies him with the Messiah, and understands especially the descriptions of his sufferings as referring to Messiah ben Joseph.2

Thus, far we have encountered arguments from outrage but no Ritual Human Sacrifice in the Bible. We have a little ways to go before we actually get to the “Bible Passages About Ritual Human Sacrifice” as we are thus far in the “Why does God want me to burn animals and humans?” section of evilbible.com-stay tuned.

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