"Paradise Lost" Freewrite

Eve always gets the short end of the stick. As the mother of all, you think there would be a little bit more respect, but no, she ate the apple and thusly, she’s a villain. Poor Adam gets dragged into her vicious little scheme, knowing that it was wrong, but loving her so much that he couldn’t say no. And people wonder why the church hates women. Lilith, Eve, Delilah…are there ANY decent females in the bible?  Women are witches, temptresses—they asked for it, right? Hasn’t that been the excuse of every rapist from all time? The use of a snake is interesting—in so many other cultures, the snake is a guardian, a symbol of life and rebirth-- now snakes are vengeful and evil and work for the devil, who, although is not necessarily the hero in Paradise Lost, definitely is the more likable character when compared to God, who’s a bit of a grouch.

So who is good and who is evil? Well, that’s not really for us to know is it? Apparently we are just supposed to guard against our own corruption. But how is there supposed to be a God when people die on the street every day? Why is there war when there’s supposed to be an omnipotent, omnipresent, all-powerful deity who could fix it in a snap. Why do children hurt and die when God is said to love them the best? If that’s how he treats people he loves, I’m glad he’s not my God. “He strung up his own son like a side of veal; I shudder to think what he’d do to me.” 

God kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden for nothing more than the desire to do something forbidden that all people feel—didn’t he instill that characteristic in us upon creation? Deprive us of Paradise for doing exactly what you created us to do? That strikes me as slightly cruel. And poor angel Michael, left holding the hands of the humans and throwing out what tidbits of comfort he could. “Well, yeah, a ton of humans will die in a flood. But then Jesus will come along and be tortured to death and everything will be good again.” I’m not feeling terribly comforted.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?  -Epicurus