How to tell real faith from false faith

In the bible, there is a story that will help you test if you have real faith, or false faith. It is the story of Abraham and Isaac. You know the story. Abe takes the son he’s always dreamed of having, Isaac, and prepares to kill him to appease god. The story is horrific, barbaric, immoral, disgusting, abusive and just plain mean. Yet it is held as the pinnacle of faith by christians, jews and muslims. So I get to bash three religions for the price of one.




Some people tell me that I’ve got it wrong; that the story isn’t bad at all. They say that god didn’t allow Abe to kill Zac. They tell me that it was just a test. They tell me god wouldn’t ask people to do that today.



NO.



First, Abe believed god wanted him to kill his son. He didn’t think the devil wanted him to kill his son; he thought that GOD wanted him to kill his child. Abe didn’t know it was a test, and he MEANT to do it before god stopped him. So clearly, we can see that god likes people to kill their kids, and that people who believe he exists should expect god to ask them to kill their children.



I find that appalling. That is an evil deity who should never be able to influence people. That is a malevolent god who has no claim to justice or morality.



Then they want me to think this couldn’t happen today. But it does. We saw with the Camping May 21, 2011 prediction that people tried to kill themselves and their children because they thought god was coming for them. It DOES happen today. If you think these people are delusional, please explain how you can differentiate their delusions from your beliefs.



So here’s my point. Let’s say you hear GOD tell you to kill your child. Take for granted that there IS a god, and that he is the one who gives you the instruction. In other words, you KNOW (somehow) that this IS god, and that he wants you to kill your child. What would you do?



I know my answer. I’d tell god to take a flying leap. Actually, I’d use lots of vulgar language and ask god to do unspeakable acts to himself in a dark corner. But I’m an atheist. What would the believer do? Would the believer consider it, even for a moment? What does that say about the influence of religion on morality? How are people good WITH god?



It seems to me that in order to get anyone to even consider this cruel and heinous atrocity, you’d first have to believe the god of the bible “has a plan” or “knows what he’s doing” and “have faith in him”. Utter nonsense. Even if my child would be lucky enough to be spared at the last second, why would I do that to him? My morals are higher than that. My morals do not allow me to abuse my child that way.



This story is a great example of how faith is harmful. It shows why people should not believe in gods that would ask us to harm our children. It is how religion is harmful, and it’s right in the bible.