I never wanted to and couldn't really explain my relationship with my dad until now. Genesis 22...
God said to Abraham, go kill me a son.
Abe said, Man, you must be puttin' me on.
BOB DYLAN, Highway 61
So think, what if this happened:
" 'Foolish boy, do you believe I am your father? I am an idolater. Do you believe this is God's command? No, it is my own desire.' Then Isaac trembled and in his anguish cried: 'God in heaven have mercy on me; if I have no father on earth, then be Thou my father!' But below his breath Abraham said to himself: 'Lord in heaven I thank Thee; it is after all better that he believe I am a monster than that he lose faith in Thee.' "
-Kierkegaard circa 1843
As the story goes: Abraham, in order to witness his faith, was obedient to God in his willingness to sacrifice his son. Humanity. Telos. Abraham consistently fails. What he himself would say in explanation of his action, that his faith is being put to the test, is quite incomprehensible according to the principle. For on the principle God could only test him by tempting him out of his familial and social obligations; there could be no duty to God that was not to be found among those obligations. And worse, Abraham cannot even explain his case, because there is no other way of intelligibly excusing your sacrifice of another as a moral action than by being able to show to the fulfilment of a social intention higher than that of keeping the person to be sacrificed unharmed.
Well God spared Abraham his son for his obedience. So please spare me.
And I rest my case. | 
