Right and Wrong

A friend of mine is working on a read-through of the ENTIRE bible, with his understanding of what he's reading. Quite a task!

After a recent trip to the mountains, and perhaps inspired by his Old Testament readings, I started thinking about the following...

Is it right that a parent should sacrifice their children ? I mean, let's say, a parent wanted to make a statement about cars going too fast down their residential street, or even in a parking lot. Would it be appropriate for a parent to let their child run out into the street and get killed, just to prove beyond a shadow of the doubt that yes, this is indeed a problem ? I mean, if the parent really CARED about this issue, and letting their child get killed might FINALLY get something done like installing speed bumps or something... would it be right to sacrifice the child for the greater good ?

Well, I think most of us would say that's pretty idiotic, and any parent who did this would be considered irresponsible.

AND YET -- this is what the bible is telling us that god did with his own son. God knew humans were nasty, back-stabbing brutes who would torture someone who was dangerous to the status quo, and yet, well, he urged his son to "play in the street." Oh ya, a loving god. Frankly, it reeks of irresponsible parenthood.

An entire religion based on feeding oneself and ones offspring to the wolves, for some "afterlife." Works for terrorists !