Would You Kill Your Child if God Told You To?

--Josh Preville, filmmaker, mentalist, and author joins David to discuss his third documentary: Losing god

--On the Bonus Show: You can't use drones to harass hunters in Alabama, Anders Breivik followup, A fascinating new scuba diving hot-spot, more...

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[Foxxorz]

It bothers me how people (family members) victimize themselves when you choose to expand your own mind.

[MilitantAntiTheist]

He looks like he could be David Pakman's brother.

[AlienPet]

Is it just me or is it a very strange coincidence that this guys JP logo looks an awful lot like David's dP logo.... just sayin'.

[naybobdenod]

Josh summed up atheism perfectly at 4-56.
Good luck to Josh with his documentary and good luck for the future.
Sincerely
JF ( UK )

[StandAsYouAre]

No.

Last time I checked it was "Thou shalt not kill" not "Thou shalt not kill unless I tell you to".

And looking at this story of Abraham, I see it more as god testing him to see how strong his free will is.  Abraham could have easily have said "No, take me instead" but he didn't.

But that is what the bible is... Stories, written very long ago...  You can learn things from them.  But all stories have lessons you can learn.

I learnt from Jane Eyre that older, rugged handsome guys hide secrets...  And in Mr Rochester's case * *Spoiler Alert* * A secret wife!  He just had the money to hide her better then regular guys...

[Ihasfinger]

They should probably be arrested for admitting they're willing to do that.

[Pretendship]

I think Josh and David should have a logo-off 

[Ravinian]

Of course someone who truly believed in god would sacrifice their children if god asked (told) them to.  Why is this hard to figure out?  God controls everything that happens after you die..where you go, your existence.  This is only difficult for people to grasp because those who cannot grasp it..don't believe in god.  If you believe that an entity exists that created you and is literally judge and jury for your eternal soul..you do what that entity says.  There is nothing..nothing that is worth ending up in hell, you do anything to avoid it.  If you truly believe in a vindictive god, eternal life and hell, you do what you're told.  This has been used to control people for a very long time, I can't believe anyone would think it had all just gone away. 

[alanw]

Bottom line: he got out because he was willing to question his beliefs.

[TheFreeAdviceMan]

Ahmed Osman's serious research on the times of Abraham and Sarah show that while Sarah was truly the mother of Yitzhak...Abraham was not his father! And when the boy's appearance became obvious ( he was the son of Sarah and Tutmosis 3 ) he was about to murder the boy! But the boy's real father...the Pharaoh Tutmosis 3, intervened! SO: the real story is not about G8D ordering the murder of a son by his real father. Abraham would never have even considered doing such a thing!

[Vicpoint]

"If God told you to kill your child, would you do it?"
This question is an old anti-theist trick. A loaded "Gotcha!" question which is practically never asked for the purposes of a sincere discussion. As such, I think the Christian should always ask the following questions *about* the question before answering:
1. Do you mean what *would* I do, or what *should* I do? If it's the former, then the only honest answer *anyone* can give is "I don't know". We never know what we would do in these situations. It's kind of like asking "If you saw three gang members beating up a woman, but you had no phone or any way of getting outside help (no weapons, etc.), would you help her?" We *want* to say "Yes, I would!" but we don't know until we're placed in that situation.
2. By "God", do you mean the *Christian* god? If not, then I wouldn't believe it was god and so I'd say no, I shouldn't obey its command.
and 3. Do you mean if *God* told me to do it, or just if I *thought* God was telling me to? If it's the former, then it grants for the sake of argument that the Christian god is real and is definitely giving this command. So the answer would be yes. Because we're talking about an omniscient, always morally correct being. It's just a truism that you should do what he says at that point. If I just *thought* it was god, I *wouldn't* think that. It's like asking "What does the square circle in your room look like?" It's an incoherent question because I wouldn't draw that conclusion. But if I did see and hear something "like" a god (e.g., a holograph-like but very real-looking glowing person with a booming voice telling me "This is God. I command you to murder your child", then I would take the least risky option and say no. Because the bible tells me not only "Do not murder" but also to test all prophecies, holding only to what is good. So I'm potentially disobeying god either way, but holding to the scripture seems to be the safer option.

[dudeist_priest]

This guy's logo looks very similar to the David Pakman logo.

[chsparkle]

it's horrible so many people say yes but I bet they reason that their god would tell them to stop at the last moment so they don't believe they would actually have to go through with it. It would just be about proving they'd do anything god says but think that god wouldn't actually make them go through with it.

[UTUBESUCK]

Questioning authority is of the utmost importance! This is precisely the catalyst, the initiator to get the brain going again, to reclaim the critical thinking that was lost to irrational faith!

For me, this is the absolute crux of the problem right there: Irrational faith killing critical thinking. As soon as you start to seriously questioning your faith, it's only a matter of time for rationality to kick in again to wake you up good. An healthy dose of Christopher Hitchens doesn't hurt either! LOL!

Fantastic video, very inspiring! :) We need more of this, a lot more!

[uncleanunicorn]

6:39. Perfect example of what makes afterlife belief so toxic, if you're so certain a better life is right around the corner, it can poison your willingness to preserve the only life we know we have.

[luguy]

Never ever, I have never been a conformist to start off. If I have to prove myself by doing something insane, I’d questioned this person making this oxymoron or paradox request. The beauty of my whole life is my child who is God given. I’d give my life for hers that’s the furthest I’d go. This God would need to learn not to undermine him or herself. Because, harm done to anyone will not be productive in any fashion.

[ernestmac]

These are good people in that, they go throughout their day & are not committing acts of violence, and they are contributing to society in other ways. The problem is, Religion can take ordinarily good people and, it can cause them to do extraordinarily bad things, such as vote to deny certain segments of society equal rights, to discriminate against segments of society, etc. in extreme cases, these people can be manipulated by a religious leader or a political leader who uses religion, into doing various acts against others, including acts of violence.

[pdoylemi]

Actually, it is quite common for people to say this. However, I suspect that they can say it so cavalierly because they assume they will never actually be asked to do this. A better test (though too cruel to try) would be to trick one of them into believing (somehow) that they really were being asked this, and see what they do.

[DensetsuVI]

So... The difference between an average christian and a murderer or serial killer, is a few words from god?

[pdoylemi]

A better question for them might be, "What if I killed my child, or attempted to, and said that god had revealed himself to me, and asked this test of faith? Would you praise me as you do Abraham? Would you even believe me?"