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Choices Ruin Lives (Critique Of Milton's Theodicy)

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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 …show more content…

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

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Being that I am 18 now I expected just a bit more freedom like, being able to drive alone, go to parties and have them not call me every 10 mins, even when it comes down to college my mom doesn't want me to be no farther than 10 miles away. So there are some days when I go against their commands only because I feel that I am more responsible and, obviously old enough to be independent and away on my own. I intend to apply at 5 colleges out of the city not because I don’t love them but, they have had me under their roof for 18 years which is long enough, so I need to move on to become a man and learn my mistakes along the way. The belief of punishment that most parents give is not out of hate but, out of love God only banished them so they know that he is the one who is in charge of keeping the balance in order and learn from their mistake, just like how parents punish their children for disobeying the orders given to them because the child need to that the parent is only looking best for the child's health, safety or future. Another connection and agreement I have with Milton’s idea is that God doesn't just sit and watch the people in hell just suffer to be evil but those are the people who had the option to follow God’s orders and they chose not to, so the price for their doing is to in a place of darkness,pain, and loneliness.

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