- 20 Jun 2009 15:31
#13069168
I've been fiddling around with Milton's Paradise Lost and I just realized - though I do not claim that this thought hasn't struck someone else out there before me - that it provides what is possibly the best understanding of the Christian notion of the Fall of Man.
I will assume a general familiarity with the story of the Fall, but a brief synopsis may be appropriate: Adam and Eve, first created humans by God, live in paradise in the Garden of Eden. About the only rule they are to follow is that they may not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In time, Satan, taking the guise of a serpent, entices and convinces Eve to eat from the tree. Adam follows suit, and they suddenly know guilt and shame, realizing their guilt over their trespass against God (sin) and their shame over their nudity. Thus God casts them out of paradise, ordering that Eve shall know the pain of childbirth and Adam shall toil the land for their food (instead of these things being freely provided in Paradise).
There's a fairly common criticism leveled against this story by non-Christians. Generally, the critique says that if Adam and Eve did not know what sin and morality was prior to eating the from the tree, it makes no sense for God to punish them. In other words, punishment is predicated on morality, but Adam and Eve are not proper moral agents until after eating from the tree. This criticism seeks to make God look despotic, evil, unfair; or to simply make Christian revelation look inconsistent.
Milton's take, however, suggests to me that Adam and Eve knew right from wrong, but could not feel it; they lacked any sort of moral intuition (or conscience). While God casts them out of Paradise for their transgression, he gives them (and all of humanity to follow) the blessing of this moral intuition or conscience. Eve's rational knowledge of the wrongness of the act is overcome by Satan's masterful rhetoric, but people since the Fall have an intuition or gut feeling that would tell them right from wrong. Magnanimity is the feeling caused by right moral behavior, and guilt that caused by sin.
This interpretation solves the dilemma presented by critics of Christianity by making it clear that Adam and Eve are rational moral agents, though without the added benefit of conscience. This removes any arbitrariness, cruelty or inconsistency from the story, and actually casts the Fall in a good light. Satan's deception of Eve is part of God's plan to show man why humanity, not just rationality, is important.
(Disclaimer: I have written this purely out of enamouration with Christian mythology and European literature, and, as a deist, would appreciate it if claims of apologetics were not brought to bear against my name.)
I will assume a general familiarity with the story of the Fall, but a brief synopsis may be appropriate: Adam and Eve, first created humans by God, live in paradise in the Garden of Eden. About the only rule they are to follow is that they may not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In time, Satan, taking the guise of a serpent, entices and convinces Eve to eat from the tree. Adam follows suit, and they suddenly know guilt and shame, realizing their guilt over their trespass against God (sin) and their shame over their nudity. Thus God casts them out of paradise, ordering that Eve shall know the pain of childbirth and Adam shall toil the land for their food (instead of these things being freely provided in Paradise).
There's a fairly common criticism leveled against this story by non-Christians. Generally, the critique says that if Adam and Eve did not know what sin and morality was prior to eating the from the tree, it makes no sense for God to punish them. In other words, punishment is predicated on morality, but Adam and Eve are not proper moral agents until after eating from the tree. This criticism seeks to make God look despotic, evil, unfair; or to simply make Christian revelation look inconsistent.
Milton's take, however, suggests to me that Adam and Eve knew right from wrong, but could not feel it; they lacked any sort of moral intuition (or conscience). While God casts them out of Paradise for their transgression, he gives them (and all of humanity to follow) the blessing of this moral intuition or conscience. Eve's rational knowledge of the wrongness of the act is overcome by Satan's masterful rhetoric, but people since the Fall have an intuition or gut feeling that would tell them right from wrong. Magnanimity is the feeling caused by right moral behavior, and guilt that caused by sin.
This interpretation solves the dilemma presented by critics of Christianity by making it clear that Adam and Eve are rational moral agents, though without the added benefit of conscience. This removes any arbitrariness, cruelty or inconsistency from the story, and actually casts the Fall in a good light. Satan's deception of Eve is part of God's plan to show man why humanity, not just rationality, is important.
(Disclaimer: I have written this purely out of enamouration with Christian mythology and European literature, and, as a deist, would appreciate it if claims of apologetics were not brought to bear against my name.)
- By wat0n
- By Potemkin
- By Puffer Fish