The Liberty (or Lack Thereof) of Adam and Eve

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. -Milton, Areopagitica, 1644

If we are to take any one moral from Milton's Paradise Lost, it might very well be that human beings must always be obedient to God. However, the term obedience implies the ability to make a choice. After all, if men are not free to decide to be obedient, then it is really not obedience at all but the only natural state that mankind can achieve. In order to support the moral that all sentient beings must be obedient to God, then we must accept that God created all sentient beings with free will. God says, "I form'd them free, and free they must remain, till they enthrall themselves" (III.123).

Freedom has only one condition in the paradise of Eden-to be obedient to God's will. Adam and Eve were instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Except for this single prohibition, they were indeed free. Or where they?

In the Garden, the archangel Raphael explains to Adam that man might someday purify their bodies into spirit, meaning that humans might

Predestination states that since God knows the entire course of future events, the fate of every person is determined before he or she is born. The damned are powerless to ever pass the gates of heaven, and the chosen are guaranteed membership in Paradise. Milton points out that God, in His own words, wants all humans to be chosen for heaven.

It is tempting to ponder what might have happened to the world had Adam not been tempted to eat the fruit. However, it is useless speculation at best. Adam had no real choice at all. Adam is not seduced into partaking of the forbidden fruit, even though Eve attempts the same arguments the serpent used on her.

God was aware that if he gave Adam and Eve the supposed gift of a "free will", their eventual fall from grace was certain. He also knew that Satan would rise from damnation to lead the first humans into the first sin. So, what was God's purpose for not intervening to save his precious creations? This leads directly to the issue of predestination. Was the fall of humankind written into the pages of history before Creation?

God gave Adam and Eve free will, but then makes every effort to condition them not to use it. Disobedience is punished, therefore making therefore making fear the impetus of obedience, not virtue. Mankind's ability to think freely is blocked by obstacles that God has deemed fit to place in our paths.

Being inferior in physical ability and subservient to Adam as he is to God, an argument could be made that Eve willfully chose to be tempted by the snake so that she could gain an advantage over Adam. She deliberates on whether or not to share the fruit with Adam. If she alone eats, it will "render [her] more equal, and perhaps...Superior: for inferior who is free?" (IX.823-825). However, in the end she cannot bear the notion of her dying and Ad

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Approximate Word count = 1242
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)