If God told you to slay your child would you

[UteStar]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I bet once again most people will be scared to vote in this poll.

What do I win? I voted! Though I may have been scared to vote, I brushed that fear aside and just voted! I accept credit cards in order to settle the bet.

[Archaea]

Voted no.

I accept wire transfers and large cash donations.

[BYU71]

I voted I would.

The question said "if God told you". It wasn't, if you thought God told you or you believed God told you or you had a vision and you supposed you saw....

The question was,if God told you. If God tells me something I am absolutely doing it unless once I get to know God I find out he isn't as powerful and all knowing as I believe him to be.

[Indy Coug]

I honestly don't know if I would, but I wouldn't feel justified for disobeying. There are all sorts of everyday commandments I consciously disobey, but I don't feel good about it or justified for doing so.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

I honestly don't know if I would, but I wouldn't feel justified for disobeying. There are all sorts of everyday commandments I consciously disobey, but I don't feel good about it or justified for doing so.

Good post. I agree (well I definitely would not do it but I agree I wouldn't feel justified in knowing or believing I disobeyed God). And major props for the last sentence. You come down a notch on the Pharisee scale for that.

[creekster]

Most of you are confusing two different things. Doing what God asks, even killing your child, is not crazy. Killing your child and claiming God told you to do so is almost certainly crazy. If you recevie direct instruciton from God (I am not talking about vocies in your head, or from the neighbor's dog, but acutally recevie those instructions from God) then you should do it. I would. OTOH, anyone claiming to have received such instrucitons is almost certainyl crazy, as God just doesn't do this very often, if ever.

I would vote in the poll, but I am far too frightened to do so.

[SoCalCoug]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Assuming we can set aside the concerns about whether or not your encounter with God is the byproduct of a mental breakdown or a bad bowl of cereal (because frankly, that argument is just a copout), the more interesting question is whether or not you are justified in not heeding a direct command from God.

I see this really as the crux of the question. There are many more cases of the God who is telling people to kill other people being a figment of their imagination than there are of God actually telling someone to kill their child (there's only one, arguably, in recorded history - at least that LDS accept).

Therefore, chances are, if I hear God telling me to kill my son, it's a sign of mental illness, rather than an actual command from God.

It's also a statement (I can only speak of myself, of course) that I am familiar enough with my level of spirituality that I don't believe my first communication with God in that manner would be telling me to kill my son. (I'm not sure - in the account of Abraham, had he had enough communication with God prior to that to be assured he was actually communicating with deity?)

People who kill children, on the basis that God told them to do it, actually believe it's God telling them to do so. Since we know it obviously isn't, and since there is only one time in recorded history that God told someone to kill their child, and it was a prophet, chances are, if I believe God is telling me to kill my son, it's actually a sign of mental illness. On that basis, as I sit here today, I would tell God no, and then seek psychiatric help.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Good post. I agree (well I definitely would not do it but I agree I wouldn't feel justified in knowing or believing I disobeyed God). And major props for the last sentence. You come down a notch on the Pharisee scale for that.

I get a kick out of how I've been labeled a Pharisee in this forum.

[TheSizzle36]

I wouldn't think twice if he told me to kill Seattle Ute...

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by SoCalCoug

I see this really as the crux of the question. There are many more cases of the God who is telling people to kill other people being a figment of their imagination than there are of God actually telling someone to kill their child (there's only one, arguably, in recorded history - at least that LDS accept).

Therefore, chances are, if I hear God telling me to kill my son, it's a sign of mental illness, rather than an actual command from God.

It's also a statement (I can only speak of myself, of course) that I am familiar enough with my level of spirituality that I don't believe my first communication with God in that manner would be telling me to kill my son. (I'm not sure - in the account of Abraham, had he had enough communication with God prior to that to be assured he was actually communicating with deity?)

People who kill children, on the basis that God told them to do it, actually believe it's God telling them to do so. Since we know it obviously isn't, and since there is only one time in recorded history that God told someone to kill their child, and it was a prophet, chances are, if I believe God is telling me to kill my son, it's actually a sign of mental illness. On that basis, as I sit here today, I would tell God no, and then seek psychiatric help.

OK, but this whole mental illness thing is an obvious caveat and gets in the way of the more interesting theological discussion of what you would be willing to do if the veracity of a directly received Divine Edict was unquestionable.