Milton's Philosophy
Apply Milton's philosophy(p. 435) "human beings have been given the freedom; ability to choose" to Paradise Lost, and to your own lives.
posted by chrisg at 2:43 PM
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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19 Comments:
I guess what this is saying, that instead of having our lives laid out for us by god, we have the will to dictate and choose where we want to go in life. We are born completely free and without limitation. So we dont have someone telling us what were suppose to be, we have the freedom to sin or the freedom to except christ. no one is telling us that we have to do anything; no one is telling us that we are wrong. Yes we do have laws and rules that were suppose to follow, but we dont have to. We can choose to set our own princibles and laws, but of course there will be consequences.
I agree with Adam. God wants us t live our own lives and make our own decisions. God wants us to be happy and live they way we want to live. In my life I can choose to do anything, but my actions will always have a result or a consequence. I can choose to do homework or choose not to do my homework. If I dont do it I accept the fact that I will get a bad grade. Same thing goes with after school activities. You do not have to participate especially out of season but if you do it makes you better and stronger to compete at a higher level. Milton's philosphy is making our own decisons and living the way we want to live.
I think that the ability to choose can be applied to "Paradaise Lost" because I think that Satan and Beezlebub had the choice to fall from grace. Satan has the freedom and choice to remain bitter towards God, because he was given that freedom.
I think that being able to choose what you want is a freedom and also a natural right. Eventhough some people are restricted and pressured into a choice, I think that they still have the freedom to make the choice to defy what is put before them. I think that many people take for granted or mislook the fact that they have a choice to react to situations. One has the ability to choose whether to be discouraged or angry, and they have the freedom to feel this way, even though it might not be the most constructive way to utilize choice. (I don't know if this is making any sense at all, it sounds good in my head, but I kind of think that it just sounds like the obvious.)
I believe in the fact that God gives us the privilege of freewill. I think this also applies to Satan and the other angels. I believe that Satan made the choice to go against God and he paid for it along with all the angels that followed him. I believe Satan is an example for us to see what happens when you go against God. I understand that it means more for God if we choose to serve him and that is why he aloud us the freedom of freewill. I guess I just don’t understand why God gave us the ability to make our own choices but then punishes us if we don’t do exactly what he says, so does that mean we don’t have complete freewill since there is only one option that benefits us in the end?
I agree with adam and nick. God has given us the oppertunity to live freely and make our own decisions. When a person sins, becuase that person chose to, he/she should have to feel bad about doing so. Being in high school, the temtations to slack off and not do any school work outside of school are present. I have the choice wether or not to not do any work.
The philosophy relates to Paradise Lost because while humans can choose for themselves, so can heavenly beings such as Satan and Beelzebub. They used their God-given freedom of choice to revolt against him, and I use this freedom everytime I choose to do the right thing, or the wrong thing. Just because God gave humans the freedom to choose, does not mean that humans always use it the way God would want. That is the beauty, and the curse, of free will.
I think this is going to be an interesting question because alot of people may contradict what they said last semester with the fate vs. free will question. If i remember, alot of us said that god has given everyone a certain fate and that he knows what decisions we are going to make before we make them, because he has already decided for us. Which really confuses me now, because in paradise lost, it is pretty clear that we(all people) have been given the ability to choose, because, as everyone before me has said, Satan and Beelzebub clearly decided on their own to go against God. As far as my own life goes i feel like decisions are put before us and we feel as if we have the ability to choose, and technically we do, but I still think God ultimately has a plan and he knows the decisions we will make.
I agree with dave, both about how it will be interesting to compare this semester and also about his theory on free will. I also believe we have free will, however God knows what is going to happen and what I am going to choose. He has a plan for my life. Scott, to answer your question about only certain choices benefiting us, that is true. But isn't that the nature of free will? Having consequences to choices is always going to occur and of course following God and what He wants for our lives is only going to have positive results. He wants his creation to choose to follow Him and that is why He gave us free will.
I think God gave humans the ability to think for themselves and choose what they want in life. I do believe in fate, however I think that a person's fate and destiny can be altered by the choices they make on a day to day basis. I think the major decisions we make in our lives are crucial to where we intend to end up. Our free will is what alows us to be free. Freedom is a gift, but it is a gift which we as humans take, not one which is given to us. The selfish nature of humans is what drives us to freedom, drives us towards sucess and drives us towards evil. Freedom isn't always a good thing. Freedom leads to evil and coruption, much like what we see from Satan and Beelzebub in Paradise Lost. As LeAnne said, Satan and Beelzebub choose to turn away from God. They used their freedom of choice to turn away from good and to turn into evil. Freedom is a gift, but how you use it is the real treasure.
I think we live our lives with decision making every minute of every day. We make small decisions like switching lanes while driving, to big decisions like where we want to go to college. I think God lets us make our own decisions, like it is shown in Paradise Lost. The only thing that God has planned out is whether we live a good or a bad life or a life in between and God makes the ultimate goal of where we go when our life of decision making is over.
I agree with Dave's last comment. He said that we have the ability to make decisions but God has a plan for everyone and knows what decisions we are going to make. That is the crazy thing about the free will that God gave to us. He lets us choose right or wrong and we can follow what he had in mind for us if we want to. In Paradise Lost, Milton shows that Satan and Beelzebub could have followed God and served him but decided not to. As for us on earth, Milton describes that Satan will try to implement his evil on us and God will show his mercy and grace to us. We have the ability to choose who we want to follow. On a smaller level we have to make decisions every day. Where we eat, what we say, and who we hang out with are just a few of the decisions we make daily. Most would agree that these things are not chosen for us, but we actually do have free will and get to decide for ouselves. Overall, God has a plan for us and has given us the freedom to choose if we want to follow it.
I agree completely with Dave and Levi. I believe completely that God has given each person the ability to make their own decisions and that we have our free will, but He knows the decisions we will make before we get there. I strongly believe He has a plan for every person and He already knows the decisions we will make and the path that we choose to take in our lives.
While I believe in God, I also believe in free will, and that people have the ability to make choices to affect their lives. I think that God lays out a path for people to follow, hence sins and good deeds, but than allows us as humans to choose how to follow it, or even to follow it at all. Of course, like others of you have said, there will be consequences for not following this path. I'm sure I haven't followed this path exactly, but I still try to lead a good life, because I choose to do so.
I agree with alot of the things sonny said. We have free will, and we make our own decisions, some harder than others. Some more important than others.
I also think that we make our own choices. I do not believe in predestination or day to day fate. I think that we make our own choices and "walk our own path"
I agree with Caitlin. I believe that I make my own decisions. If I make a mistake that is my responsibility to accept and realize I have made a mistake. Each day I try to live a life where I learn. I learn from my mistakes. I don't know if God has an impact on our lives, if he has set a path for each individual. If so then yea maybe he knows the decisions we will make ahead of time, like Amy K stated.
Milton's philosophy is really quite plain and simple, as well as true. We really are given the freedom to choose right from wrong. I also agree with Dave and Levi. God has a plan for us and he knows what will happen to us. He doesn't tell us what to do or select our "destiny," however he is all knowing and he knows each and every one of us so well that he knows what decisions we are going to make before we make them. God has foreordained all of us to accomplish something while here on earth, however, we can only accomplish it if we make the right choices and walk uprightly before Him. This really stresses the importance of making the right decisions. When we do the right things all the time, more oppurtunities are made available to us. Isn't that what freedom really is? Many say that making the right choice is controlling because you don't get to do what you want, therefore you are not free. However, this is wrong. You lose oppurtunities to do more and more exciting things when you make the right choices and fulfill your foreordination. You truly do become free when you make the right choices. Simply look at Satan and Beelzebub. They are condemned to Hell where they are continually suffering because they did what they wanted. Do you think they are free now? I definitely don't!
Amy has said it perfectly. God knows what we do before we do it but we still have free will. Just because he knows what we are going to do doesn't mean he chose that decision for us. Relating that fact back to Paradise Lost, Satan and Beelzebub were given free will to make their own choices and, as a result, to take the consequences for that decision to turn away from God in every respect. Sonny, as usual, has a great point that every choice is a demonstration of our free will, even though not all of them take a lot of time or thought. To live in a repetitive and dull routine is like throwing away God’s gift of free will.
Well spoken Sonny. Milton's philosophy that we have been given the ability to choose is best communicated in the word "freedom". Like you said, we have the ability to choose what to do or what not to do, but it is much more than just a simple ability. We have the freedom to choose what we would like to do, and in fact we even have the freedom to choose free-will itself. We can either choose to exercise our free-will or submit to God's will. Truly to go through life leaving the freedom of free-will behind is a waste of potential. However, I believe that even when you submit to God's will, you're using your free-will to choose to obey him. Thus nothing is being wasted and you're still living up to your potential. Milton juxtaposed this choice of free-will with Satan's choice to use his free will for the exact opposite reason. According to Paradise Lost, Satan knowingly walks headstrong into an eternal battle which he cannot win. He uses his unconquerable will to defy God for all eternity, no matter how futile his attempts are. Milton shows that we have the choice to submit to God for the sake of submission, or we could defy God simply for the sake of defiance. Either way our God-given will is unconquerable despite how we use it.
I am able to choose all of my actions in my life. I choose my high school. I am choosing my college. Also, I can choose to live a good and decent life, or to live in sin. This is what i have to focus on to see where i will spend eternity in.
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