Perhaps it is because I took 110 concurrently with 220, and in both classes Paradise Lost was on the curriculum that I find it hard to agree with Milton’s God. In 110, the reading of Paradise Lost focussed on Satan as both a villain and an epic hero, and that reading really resonated with me.

I have a hard time seeing God as anything other than a dictator. Obedience is a big word I find associated with him whenever He is mentioned, such as on line 190 “to pray, repent and bring odebience due”. Later at line 210, the punishment for disloyalty is death. We see with Satan that his original sin is the his ambition to be more than what he is. Thus, we see that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to move any direction other than down in God’s heirarchy.

Dealing with Satan, God, being all-knowing, knows of Satan’s plans and allows him to sin, and punishing him. I don’t know how others, especially those of the christian faith see this, but I can’t see it as particularly fair.