Abraham's Ethical Dilemmas

When it comes to faith, people are often exhorted to have the faith of Abraham, the father of three of the largest religions in the world. His story in Genesis is celebrated for his unyielding belief in God’s divine plan which is what sets him aside as a figure to which all can aspire. However, his actions and choices seem a bit questionable. God’s command to kill one’s own son is fundamentally unreasonable given the premise that God is all good, and Abraham’s willingness and lack of objection in obeying him subsequently demonstrates a lack of ethics. One of the first things that should raise some concerns in Abraham’s story is why God would command Abraham to kill Isaac, his only son, who God himself promised to him (Genesis 17:16). Operating on the premise that God is all-good, this command does not seem to be logical: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love… and offer …show more content…
In many cases, the outcome of one’s action may seem to be unclear or an action could have unforeseen or unintended consequences. For example, a supervisor at work might command one of his new subordinates to leave something out of the books. Being new at the job, the subordinate, unsure of what might happen, refuses to question the act and is then responsible for a coworker losing his job. He may not have known the object of the action was something bad, but he was still responsible for trying to discern the morality of following this order, before making his own action. Another often thought of example is of a soldier in a war. “I was only following orders” has been used as a defense for many a war crime and rarely has it ever worked. In both cases, the person being commanded carries the onus of objecting the command and as long as he is not in danger by disobeying the order, is therefore being