Yep, I’m talking about that Story of Abraham.
Now, it happened, it didn’t happen… I’m not going there. Where I am going is how modern religion currently uses the story of Abraham to guide their flocks. And based on the commonly used interpretation of the story, I can tell you, beyond a doubt, western religions will not survive as we current know them.
Let’s take a look at the central part of the Abraham lore to see why: the part where he trusts the will of God blindly, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his son when God asks him to.
For the sake of argument, we need to ignore the fact that in modern times, Abraham would be locked up for his act quick as you can say, “You’re under arrest for child endangerment.”
Only, we can’t just ignore this fact. We have to account for it. And we do that by accepting that as a society, we have evolved since the time of Abraham
And this evolution, my friends, changes everything.
Maybe back in the day, man’s faith needed to be tested, but not anymore. I’m quite sure, given our willingness to slaughter one another in the name of God, that God no longer questions our acceptance of Him. If He were to hold a mountain over our heads today, it would not be to ensure our allegiance. More likely, it would be to get us to stop being so eager to prove it.
Mankind long ago earned the ability to judge right from wrong for ourselves. With that came the right to exchange blind faith for reason, much the same way children earn the right to question their parents as they themselves become adults.
That religious orthodoxy continues to use the story of Abraham to squash responsible adults from asking reasonable questions is not adherence to faith, it’s bullshit.
By leaving Abraham’s story at the center of religion, orthodoxy asks—neigh, demands!—individuals retain the blind faith of a child despite their all-growed-up mental faculties. And as any adult with an overbearing family patriarch can tell you, denying adults the ability to ask questions creates deep, deep problems—psychological, social, spiritual, and, often, drinking.
Once upon a time, the story of Abraham served a critical role in society. Less so today. We’ve outgrown it—to the point where we would throw Abraham in jail if he tried that stunt in modern society. This doesn’t mean we’ve turned our backs on God, it just means we’ve grown up and taken responsibility for ourselves.
We’re ready for what’s next. Faith is no longer the core issue for religion to solve. That’s done. From a leadership perspective, this means religion needs a new hero—one whose story represents our future needs rather than our past.
Western religion must accommodate its evolved and evolving adherents, or risk falling apart completely.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The West doesn’t see much adherence to ritual sacrifice…probably because of this little book called the New Testament that supersedes the blood and guts of the Abrahamic story.
Holocaust, Genocide, NAMBLA, human trafficking. It takes a plurality of men to agree these things are right for these practices to exist, are you sure of mankind’s evolved “ability to judge right from wrong?”
Somehow a 2000 year old carpenter persists as the greatest leader the world has ever known…we don’t need a better leader, we just need to be better followers.
Interesting thought, though many stories can be reinvented to provide relevancy and still be useful.
Mostly I’ll just point out that most great figures (past and present) would be thrown in jail for their actions. Context is key. If I am a construction foreman and I order thirty people to do a task that will kill 80% of them (even if they succeed) I’m in jail, if I don’t get lynched first.
If I’m a commander during a war I might win a medal, and I almost certainly won’t go to jail. And really, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
I think it’s dangerous to suppose that all of human society has changed to the point that at no time and in no context is a story about faith in the face of staggering ambiguity meaningful.