The Problem of Evil in John Milton's Paradise Lost | Behind The Bible | 2 of 3
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
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Dive into the timeless masterpiece 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton (1667) for profound insights into the concepts of good, evil, morality and freedom. Far from a frivolous poem, Paradise Lost grapples with age-old questions such as: Is God truly good? Is Satan inherently evil, or a complex figure beyond mere villainy? What was the point of the 'Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil' in the garden of Eden? Can it really be a sin, to know? What is the role of science in the Bible? Unraveling Milton's intricate narrative, this essay marks the second of a three-part series challenging conventional interpretations of Satan as merely evil incarnate. Unlock the depths of Milton's wisdom with us.
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RECOMMENDED READING:
John Milton's Paradise Lost: A Norton Critical Edition: rb.gy/rldqys
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THE WRITTEN WORLD - LIFE LESSONS FROM LITERATURE
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I withhold knowledge from my small children that they are not yet mature and disciplined enough to assimilate and master-knowledge of sex, pharmaceuticals, of weapons and war, of cosmetics, influence, and so on. I will unveil it in time, but meanwhile they are made ready by walking with me as Adam once walked with God in the garden before he reached out and took on his own terms. A fool might find beautiful ways of calling my loving care for my kiddos tyranny and self-assertion, but they would be mistaken.
Knowing good and evil is a frequent biblical idiom for maturity. It is a mistake to think it was to be withheld forever. When the chorus calls out in the Song of Solomon, "Do not arise nor awaken love before its time!" It would be nonsense to conclude then that the time would never come for the Beloved to be united to her Lover, for that is the consumation of the Song.
Hi Mack whose on a mission. Thanks for your contribution. I think it's telling that you would compare adult human beings to children; which implies an overseer and a father, and an infantilism which robs human beings of moral responsibility. "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Second, let's not forget that the only reason that 'it' wasn't withheld, was due to the eating of the fruit, and that knowledge of good and evil (ie. of moral self-determination), was PUNISHED by god. Allegedly. And if, as you say, "Knowing good and evil is a frequent biblical idiom for maturity", make no mistake, that the credit goes to Lucifer, the light-bringer, and of course Prometheus, the fire-bringer.
@@TheWrittenWorldSubscribeNow I think you must have very different intuitions about parenting and moral responsibility than I. My guardianship of my children does not rob my children of moral responsibility. Far from it. My care is the arena in which they develop and grow their moral character by taking on greater and greater responsbility-not too little such that they grow selfish, callous, or uncaring; nor so much that they are crushed by the load. Our family is the arena that affords them the opportunity to *become* moral creatures. Having no parents does not produce an übermensch. It produces a feral child.
It's no accident, I think, that God is call, by Christ, the Father. Relationship with the Creator has not robbed me of moral responsibility. It has been the most demanding, rigorous, transformative force in my life. It has been the school in which I learn to know good and evil, not to, as the refrain of chaos goes, "to do what is good in my own eyes."
Along with Christian and Jewish sages back beyond written record, I beg to differ very strongly with your assertion that, "the only reason that 'it' wasn't withheld, was due to the eating of the fruit." It has long been held that that tree was a "not yet", not a "never". Adam and Eve were children, gullible, rubes. They were no more ready for that knowledge than my children are to be awakened to sexual knowledge by a predatory uncle or school teacher. The Father, just like every admirable human father, intends his children for maturity. The fruit was indeed desireable, as are so many things, but that which is desireable becomes death to us when seized on my own terms and in my own time.
I differ as well with the simplistic notion that Adam and Eve were simply punished. If my son saw a horror film about a serial killer, introducing him to ideas and horrors he is not ready to process, and then he got hold of a knife and stabbed a kid at school, there may well be punishment, but many of the consequences would be the necessary steps to adjusting to the fact that he had discovered attitudes and means of destruction that he was not morally developed enough yet to manage. His separation from classmates would be as much protection as punishment. If he got a phone too soon and too soon discovered porn, there would be a fallout in his relationships with girls that would not be a punishment from anyone. They would come as a consequence of that knowledge come by too soon.
Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden so that, in their now relationally-alienated (they don't even know yet to choose humility and repentance over petty finger-pointing), self-led state, they must be protected from making their current corruption permanent. But they are given the garments of skin for protection, given the gift of children, and given the promise of a final defeat of the serpent from their own offspring.
Lucifer indeed brings a kind of light. He is the pedophile, the gang-leader, the child-trafficker, who comes telling you the Father is trying to keep you from realizing your full potential, that you should shake off his shackles and strike out. Surely he wants better for you than the Father. Sure, I'll give him that.
The more we seem to know the more we are certain about where our limited knowledge ends. The wider the search, the more uncertain the aim. We reject what we ought to become, because if our navigation system is based on an outer cause, the burden of selfhood is lightened. I agree with your premise that is a very clever analogy, one that most elusive minds would accept that direction disguised as the answer. I know not that if I know, but I believe that someone else must know what I don’t know, hence the journey and the subjugation of the mind. 😂
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Good points. I was brought up a christian, but debated a lot with athiests. I would say God is indifferent. The free will argument makes God an observer. However, following Jesus teachings, the best way to LIVE is to behave in a good manner ie generosity, charity, caring, helping etc. This way of acting is beneficial for society.
The free will argument is not an argument It's a fact. For if it was not true then no one will be evil. God would just make everyone to stop sining.
This is not true because God is the origin of Good
Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?
@@TheWrittenWorldSubscribeNow There is only one God. And that is the father, the son and the holy spirit.
@@TheWrittenWorldSubscribeNow And what you speak nonsense. God has shown his love and goodness.Through the sacrifice of his son.
@MagnusMorris-wp4it That adds up.
@@TheWrittenWorldSubscribeNow And if you don't somehow understand. It means that God loves humanity. Because God is love.