The OP reminded me of something that irks me about religion. The whole "God first" thing, as is encapsulated by the story of Issac and Abraham.
I always wondered what it meant to put God before family. Like, in instances where God is not instructing you to kill your child, how do you actually do that?
One being (God) is the supreme cosmic power in all existence. He doesn't really need anything. The other being (your family member) has a multitude of needs; your child for instance, depends on you for nearly everything. Seems like family should win out every time for who gets taken care of first.
Triage in a medical setting demonstrates how best to maximize the amount of help given when there is more than one individual in need of care. Among the people who can be helped, one selects the person who is in most need of attention first, and the person who has little need for attention last.
If believers made sure that everyone else was taken care of before moving on to give God praise... if its main tenet was to help those around you as much as possible--then help God... it might actually be a moral enterprise. As it stands now, it is little more than a source of moral confusion. Oftentimes urging people to act to the detriment of their fellow human beings in order to serve a divine master.
I always wondered what it meant to put God before family. Like, in instances where God is not instructing you to kill your child, how do you actually do that?
One being (God) is the supreme cosmic power in all existence. He doesn't really need anything. The other being (your family member) has a multitude of needs; your child for instance, depends on you for nearly everything. Seems like family should win out every time for who gets taken care of first.
Triage in a medical setting demonstrates how best to maximize the amount of help given when there is more than one individual in need of care. Among the people who can be helped, one selects the person who is in most need of attention first, and the person who has little need for attention last.
If believers made sure that everyone else was taken care of before moving on to give God praise... if its main tenet was to help those around you as much as possible--then help God... it might actually be a moral enterprise. As it stands now, it is little more than a source of moral confusion. Oftentimes urging people to act to the detriment of their fellow human beings in order to serve a divine master.
