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Think Again
Stanley Fish
November 4, 2007, 10:25 pm
Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God
Tags: GOD AND SUFFERING
In Book 10 of Milton's "Paradise Lost," Adam asks the question so many
of his descendants have asked: why should the lives of billions be
blighted because of a sin he, not they, committed? ("Ah, why should
all mankind / For one man's fault… be condemned?") He answers himself
immediately: "But from me what can proceed, / But all corrupt, both
Mind and Will depraved?" Adam's Original Sin is like an inherited
virus. Although those who are born with it are technically innocent of
the crime – they did not eat of the forbidden tree – its effects rage
in their blood and disorder their actions.
