fwiw, what is my take on the origin of the story?

well, there's this interesting idea running through roman history that the carthaginians practiced child sacrifice as a part of their religious rituals. the carthaginians were a semitic people that colonized the coasts of north africa and southern spain, from home bases in modern day lebanon. the romans successfully wiped them off the face of the earth like jagmeet singh's beard must eventually be wiped off of the face of the earth, leaving nothing much at all but scattered traces and broken latin translations of their science, but it is well understood that they were the most advanced civilization of their period.

both the phoenicians and the hebrews came from cultural canaanite origins. and, it may be that this ritual of sacrifice was widespread in the areas that judaism eventually evolved in.

the timelines are very rough, but fit with a broad hypothesis that this story was meant to end an endemic practice of child sacrifice in society. the important part of the story may consequently not have had much to do with faith at all, but been more about the ram that was presented instead - the lesson being to kill the ram, not the kids.

(and, what do we call young goats?)

some caution is required, as i'm basically arguing that the ancient jews were baby eaters, and i'm aware of the path i'm walking down. but, i'm going to flip this over: the accusations are as old as history is. and, we do actually have archaeological evidence that does seem to suggest that child sacrifice is something that happened in pre-roman canaanite civilization. as far as we can tell, this is something that happened in the mists of history, even if there isn't any evidence that it has happened since.

as is the case regarding much of the bible, if that is true then it was an important lesson in the bronze age, wasn't it? how many children's lives did the story save?

but, it would also follow that the lesson we are to learn today is one of distancing ourselves from faith.