Milton’s devil is a very interesting character. You can’t help but see the Judeo-Christian god as a bit of an oppressive jerk.
The devil dares to ask questions. That is his biggest crime, he thinks. He asks, but why? God cannot be questioned. Why not? God is perfect, to question him is to deny his perfection. If god is perfect, why is he concerned about what I think? Why does it matter if I question him? In Christian belief, before men during the Age of Reason started to reject concepts of blind obedience, there is no room for thoughts, innovation, imagination. There is only room for acceptance of the doctrines passed through the Catholic church. The Irony in all of this is that the modern reader often sees the devil as the hero of the story…not the lesson that Milton was striving for at all.
The Founding Fathers of the US were deeply engrossed in the Age of Reason thought process. This nation is based upon the rejection of blind obedience, the belief that we are each equal citizens if proper education is administered. Milton’s devil is the devil of progress, the devil of technological advancement, the devil of questions that must be answered, the devil of science. He is the devil who dares to ask, what if?
The core question that is asked in Paradise Lost, “Can Man attain godliness trying to mimic perfection without reason, or must he seek his own answers through creativity and talent, even if that path leads to suffering and struggle?” In Milton, the devil famously states, “better to rule in hell than serve in heaven”. Why would this be true? Can Pride be the only answer to why the devil would say this?
"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.." The devil cannot be satisfied with the easy answers. He is unable to accept the status quo, the accepted state of affairs. He’s a visionary in a realm that has room for only one visionary. In Christian society thinking as an individual, challenging the norms, questioning society is dangerous. Guilt flourishes for those who deviate from the standard norm. What if guilt is rejected? Society rejected? Must society be destroyed by the threat of rejected norms? On a deeper level, can there be any greater hell or heaven than our own minds? Imaginative minds can find solace in hell. A perfect world offers no opportunity for the thinker, no room from growth.
Interestingly enough, Milton did pretty much seal my path to atheism. I was an agnostic by age 9. None of the god belief made any sense to me.
Do you feel very uncomfortable without hope of an afterlife?
There is no weakness in hoping for eternity. Energy cannot be destroyed. That is a law of science. Can energy have thought? Thoughts are a series of electro-chemical reactions in the brain. Therefore it is not beyond reason to expect that some sense of thought could continue beyond the existence of material form. When you read Einstein, he describes parallel dimensions of space in which all realities can be experienced in endless patterns…the stuff of Star Trek…
Perhaps it would surprise you that I do not deny the possibility of afterlife, I deny the possibility of an all knowing, all powerful, all loving god. We are each gods. Whether we continue or not in some form after life cannot be proven or dis-proven. Atheism is no belief in god. What does god have to do with the continuation of essence. I say, nothing.
There is certainly a level of existential thought to Milton. I think he was trying to answer the criticism of the emergent Age of Reason and through the brilliance of his artistry actually strengthened the arguments from the critics.
So, there is some basis of reason to suspect that continuation of existence can occur, but there is absolutely no reason to the concept of god. You either belief without any evidence, or you reject it outright.
The two are not mutually intertwined, except through mythology.
The gods had no association whatever with afterlife in many ancient societies.
Blame the damn Zoroastrians for all this heaven and hell, angels and devils crap.
People were pretty satisfied that their dead ancestors served as protectors independent of other deities.
People began thinking hmmm, you can’t see my ancestor, but I know on a personal level they are there, so maybe they can serve as mediators with the gods, thus creating a relationship with death and gods.
So, at least there is a chance to "be" beyond this life.
The god lovers wanted to inject god in everything and pretty much have done so in many places where god had no business, because ultimately if you don’t know why something happens, blame the gods…um, I mean the gods must have done it.
When you look at the history of thought you see that gods have been gaining power since the written word.
Hence full circle to Milton’s devil. If we cannot question, we cannot learn. If everything must be adjudicated by one omnipotent perfection, what is the point of existence at all? Christianity would say to serve, without question.
My answer to that, is the concept of Christian perfection must be rejected as false before we can learn the truth through our own journey of self-discovery.
After all, do we really want a world where all people are born wicked and women most of all. Personally, I want the opportunity to earn my wickedness stripes on my own.