Choices Ruin Lives (Critique Of Milton's Theodicy)

Choices Ruin Lives

(Critique of Milton’s Theodicy) God is an amazing being. In almost any culture, there seems to be a god of some sort. Each individual has their own beliefs, and is ultimately what helps them move along in life. My God is an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, gracious, and merciful god. There is nothing about him that is imperfect in any way, shape, or form. I’ve read the Bible and what it states about God and who he is, as I’m sure many other people have done as well. But it seems as if each person has a slightly different view of what God wants, expects, and intends for us as his ultimate, divine creations. Milton is one of these people who has a sort of twisted view in my opinion of God. While Milton is an extremely

The amount of control he has is infinite. Milton weakens his argument greatly because he says he believes that God is all-powerful, yet he portrays God as reacting to Adam and Eve’s sin like there was nothing he could have done to prevent them from eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This makes God lose power and control, which also contradicts Milton’s beliefs. Milton’s ultimate goal is to take the blame off of God for the existence of evil, so he states in Book 10 “…be not dismayed, nor troubled at these tidings from the earth, which your sincerest care could not prevent, foretold so lately what would come to pass…” (Book 10, lines 35-38) Milton portrays God as pretty saying there was nothing the angels, who were the guardians of the garden and humans, could have done to prevent any of this from happening. To me this just seems as if Milton is presenting God as an individual who doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions and this poses a major issue for me. God would never did any of that, and I think that he takes the blame for what happened because in a way he intended for it to happen, I just do not know why. He also states in Book three “… whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me all he could have; I made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the ethereal powers and spirits…” (Book 3, lines 96-101) Here, once again, Milton puts the blame of the Fall onto Adam and Eve because he gave them the ability of free will, they knew that they could obey and not eat the fruit or disobey and eat the fruit. They chose to disobey and eat the fruit, therefore it is Adam and Eve’s fault. This is another depiction of God putting the blame onto something that he created, so once again God is the one who created evil and is ultimately to blame for the existence