*Clears Throat..* I am Logan Rice. I am a senior at Wren and look to attend the University of South Carolina after high school (Que all the stereotypical remarks about USC...) I am a musician and I believe that everything in life has a rhythm and a song to be sung. So music is obviously something I do a lot in my spare time. You might have seen me and my friends cover my role model (coughs..) Taylor Swift at the Talent Show as "Mermaid Man and the Barnacle Boys." We didn't win. Besides music, I go clubbing. And by clubbing I mean I harass young kids on Club Penguin until I get bounced. (That was a joke.)
But seriously, things about me. Geez.
1). My role model on this earth is Jon Foreman. He's an incredible musician, person, and a very "twitter-quoteable" guy.
2). I'm a very emotional person, which is cool. And it can get me in trouble. Either way, I try to invest 100% into things that I can do and get involved in.
3). I quote the movie "Hot Rod" at least twice a day. Probably not healthy.
4). Only a select few people truly understand my sense of humor, so most perceive me as a tremendously awkward person. Which I am perfectly okay with.
5). I am a true believer in doing what your passion is and not worrying about the worldly things that will pass away as soon as you do. I want to one day sit on my
porch as an old man smoking my pipe and be able to reminisce about all of the things I've done and say that I have lived life to the fullest potential possible.
6). This description of myself is way too deep.
7). My Spotify playlists are cooler than yours.
You can follow me on Twitter: @bloganrice and creep on my photos on Instagram @bloganrice and friend me on MySpace. Oh wait. Hahaha. Kidding.
So that's me.
{Creeper Status Fact of the Day} - I've known Mr. Alexander's fiance, Katelyn, since I was a wee young lad. Seriously though since I was like 6. So, take that Larissa.
"Hope is the Only Thing Stronger Than Fear" (Tweet that.)
Response to Genesis Chapters 1-3:
Entering in to this assignment and reading I challenged myself to do something that I have never really done in my entire life. Read the Bible from the perspective of one who hasn't heard it their entire life. I personally grew up in the church, literally. My parents were involved therefore I was involved. And from the classic 3 year old Sunday School Classrooms, Genesis was taught on those legit felt boards. Therefore I know these chapters fairly well but with a little taste of bias. Whether that was right or wrong, I don't really know. But anyways, here's my response:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That was the opening statement. Which, in itself is very incredible. I enjoy watching the sunset, sunrise, the stars. I've seen many many incredible scenes and quite frankly, art. So this statement is amazing. That one single God can create such a vast and infinite universe. Continuing on it describes how God created night and day, the waters and the land, etc etc. As the creation days continue God says "it was good." However, when God gets done with everything he steps back and says "it was very good." Which directly translates to, "Yeah, this world is perfect." And it was! God created man and woman later on in chapter two and their home (the Garden of Eden) was in the absolute perfect location (if any of you guys have studied where it was placed, the areas around it (the land, rivers, soil) the location itself was perfect.) Every dot on the hypothetical "i" was exactly as God wanted it to be. Which leads up to this question. Why would God (who is obviously all powerful considering he made the entire universe), let the Serpent come in and tempt? The one thing God said not to do, the Serpent pounces on and says "Hey. Do it."
The first thing I think of is when a parent tells a child not to touch the power outlet. Does the parent know what will happen? Yep. Does the kid know it's probably wrong since the parent clearly stated not to do it? Completely. What's the first thing the child does? Touch the outlet.
And that's what happened here. Eve touched the "outlet" the Creator told her not to. Not only that, but brought along the ol' husband to do it with her. (Thus proving guys will do things for a woman... but that's another point.) So they both touch the outlet. And God comes in and says, "Hey. You're going to get shocked" and furthermore sin enters the world for the first time.
And that's where the struggle occurs. I look back at what the Author of A Single Eye says stating that "sin" is just a figment of the imagination and all a concept. However, when you look at how Adam and Eve just straight took flight to hide themselves when they realized they were naked, something was there. That's the conflict of A Single Eye and The Bible. And quite frankly a major conflict in Christianity. Why would a perfect God let pure filth enter the world? Everything was set up for a story book. A fairy tale. Nothing would or could go wrong. Why didn't the "parent" pull the "child" away from the outlet?
And right at this point my Christian faith begins to step in. Which I'm going to not include in this response because I don't want to write a page. Or shove Christianity down the throat of the entire class.
I do look forward to discussing these topics in class and hearing the different sides and opinions of others.
(Quick side note: Ch. 2 V. 20 "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." This statement is grammatically incorrect. Why?) Response to the Response: Genesis 1-3 By Mallory McFerron
I am very impressed by your response! I like how you decided to read it from a different perspective. I too have read this over and over since childhood, but never actually dissected it from a different stand point. You pointed out God's use of "it was good" and finally "it was very good" which I noticed but did not reflect on in my response. I agree that this statement proves that God had created a perfect world. Which leads me to wonder the same question, why would He create something as evil as temptation to come along and ruin it? I believe He created the world knowing people would have the choice, just like Adam and Eve chose the sin of eating the forbidden fruit. I agree with the child/parent/light socket analogy. To comment on the question, "Why didn't the parent pull the child away from the outlet?" I think that the parent (God) wanted the child (Adam and Eve) to choose God over the temptation. Even though God knows ultimately what is going to happen in each one of our lifes', it pleases Him when we act according to His teaching. I enjoyed this discussion and your response, Logan!
Response to "On the Marionette Theatre":
This passage was challenging and very interesting because of how it was written. The writer used the parallel of a human puppet dancer versus an actual human dancing. At first I thought I didn't know exactly how that was going to play in. And as I continued reading my eyes were opened. I found this comparison interesting. The Puppet had no flaws in its dancing. However, it had no way to have flaws. The way it was used and created everything was perfectly intertwined and used. There was no way the Puppet could have screwed up. The Human dancer, however, could. It needed the ground unlike the Puppet. The Human's limbs couldn't move and work like the Puppet's. The Puppet was more graceful that the Human in every way. In fact, the author states that "Only a god can equal inanimate matter" when it comes to gracefulness. This comparison shows that we as Human's are flawed. We cannot be perfect. We fail everyday in our "dance" through life. However, this comparison also shows the need for the "god" that makes us graceful. We suck! We're terrible dancers. But because we suck, we realize that we have no have someone greater than us to make us graceful and beautiful. In conclusion to the passage the author tells a story about a bear fencing. A rather strange story. But the author asks the one listening, "do you believe me?". And he said "absolutely." He then discusses how when thought and "reason" diminish, grace abounds. That if we truly had no consciousness we would be like the puppet. But because we ate from the tree therefore gaining a consciousness of guilt and shame we aren't. But if we were!, then we'd be like a puppet in a god's hands. Therefore we'd need to reverse the eating of the fruit and the entering into the world to be perfect again. And the last line, truly my favorite. ""Of course", he said, "but that's the final chapter in the history of the world."" This line gives hope that one day, there will be a coming where we will be perfect again.
Response to the Response: On the Marionette Theatre By Mallory McFerron
Yes, i agree this passage was interesting as well as challenging! I liked how you went into detail at the perfection of the puppet. The use of the text is a great example of the puppet's gracefulness described. I never thought that our everyday is a "dance" through life and I'm glad you made that comparison. We both made the tie back to the fact that we as humans need a god that makes us graceful and beautiful (which makes me feel really smart BTW NBD!) I read that bear story literally scratching my head because I really didn't see the point in it beyond adding more words to the page (maybe the author, like me, was trying to reach a certain word limit.) Anyways, thanks for clearing that last part up for me. What you said def makes sense. Why couldn't I think of that? I guess the last line really does give us hope for the perfectness in our future!
Response to "Book One":
Book One was a rather difficult read. For one, the way it was written was different and you had to re-read some parts. It was also difficult because of the things said. The author is very bold in what he says. I found it very interesting how he discussed how Heaven, Hell, and Earth were derived from the same source: Chaos. This is an important detail because it shows that they are related. Their genetics are similar because they have the same parent (Chaos). He then discusses the fall of Satan from the Heavens and how Hell is their prison. However, Hell was already created before the fall of Satan. This is also a very important detail because it shows how God had created that even before the crime was committed (Proving His All-Knowingness... and Predestination?). Interesting thought to chew on. Later on in the story the author discusses how pain exists in the world (Around line 140). However, because the Almighty left His Spirit for us, we can endure the Warr and endure the pain because the Spirit will support us. (I think that's what the author intended...). Then, perhaps my favorite part of this book occurs around line 160. The author discusses how states "To do ought good never will be our task but ever to do ill our sole delight." This states that we not only do evil, but we want to do evil. We desire to do evil. It's our nature, better yet, our instinct. But later this is contrasted. "If then his Providence Out of our will seek to bring forth good." This is saying that God can make our evil hearts and arrange them into bringing forth good. This is very challenging. Think about it. This is saying that sin brings further glory to God. Not because of sin itself! But instead, because we're sinful and because we're broken we can bring even more glory to God. If everything was perfect, there would be no brokenness. If there was no brokenness there would be no hardship. If there was no hardship we couldn't have a testimony. Testimonies are emotional! It's why we get emotional when we see "Rags to Riches" stories. And what greater "Rags to Riches" story than sinning and having evil be not only a characteristic of us humans but our desire and yet it's still turned for good. That was my favorite part of the Book. There are many more things about this that I look forward to diving into in class and I'm glad we're going to discuss them because honestly there were some things I couldn't quite comprehend yet.
Response to the Response: Book 1 Mallory McFerron So I think you took this different than I did, but you said you opened your eyes so that's good. It is difficult to read! I really like that you talked about the discussion of Chaos. The way you broke down how they are related makes sense. I, too agree it's interesting to think about how God created Hell before the fall of Satan. Then the question comes up again, why would God let Satan do this? God could easily not allow Satan to rebel ect. Another interesting point is that Satan is pretty much digging his own grave. I think he's trying to make a big statement and not just go down easy. I still think the devil is being short sited to God's plan and over all power over him. The question still remains, why did Satan have to rebel? Later in your response, you talked about sin bringing glory to God, but I'm not sure that's what that line was trying to convey. I do agree with that, however. Overall, keep up the good work, and hopefully I will be able to understand it more, too!
Response to Book II:
I enjoyed the Second Book mainly due to the action and the talk back and forth. I have a hard time getting into book that are purely information and don't have much speech. So Book II's dialogue between Satan and his demons were nice. The plot thickens when Satan and his demons congregate and talk about the plan to go to war against God. I find this very interesting considering they all know the power of God. However, despite the circumstances they go to war. I find Satan to be a funny guy. Just how he set up the situation and planted the idea of how the war was going to happen. Then how Satan so quickly 'stepped up to the plate and took one for the team' as he is now going to go to Earth to fight the war with God. I wrestle with Satan's tactics though. I don't know whether it's a low blow that Satan is going to attack the things that God cares about the most (Adam and Eve), or strategic. Either way, neither side gets "Home Field Advantage" as Earth is the location for the war to come. Satan continues to contradict himself when it comes to being a monarchy or a tyrant after advertising the glory of a democracy, unlike heaven. I'm looking forward to the further readings to see exactly how everything plays out.
Mallory's Response the Response of Book 2: Well we both agreed that we enjoyed the second book because of the plot and dialogue in it. I think the conversation allowed for more understanding of the overall book. I think its interesting that you think the Devil is funny. I too think he is a well developed character. To me, the situation of going to battle and volunteering himself does show strategic planning. He's plotted out attacking man kind on purpose. As well as being strategic, its also a low blow like you said. We don't have to think it was right for him to do, but in his defense it was smart. I never thought about neither of them having a "Home field advantage" because I guess I'm confused with who the war is exactly against, the devil vs humans or God? I feel like its against God and he has the advantage over Satan because he already knows the Devil's plan and actions before they take place. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading on.
Response to Books 9:
This was a very very challenging section for me personally. I don't really know why, but I feel like I have to choose a side between Eve and Adam. Eve explains her discontent and how her happiness, made by the "Maker wise" (God), is imperfect. She also questions how one can be happy when one is living in fear of sin and the 'foe'. Eve is really hammering home that she is not a happy person in the condition she is in, which I find to be quite interesting. Adam comes back and explains that nothing the Maker has done is imperfect. He then goes on to explain free-will and choice. The way I interpreted his explanation was interesting. (I don't know if I was right.) But he discussed how one has free-will to follow Reason, but the Creator made Reason right. Therefore, we choose to follow Reason, but Reason is controlled by God. Therefore, God has some sort of control in our lives. Which is challenging in itself because who wants to be controlled, right? I think Adam is completely right with all of my bias aside. However, I completely understand where Eve is coming from. If I was in Eve's situation not knowing any aspect of what's to come, I would be exactly like her in the sense of her question. Then the actual eating of the fruit occurs. Based on Milton's views from the previous books, I was surprised on how much emphasis was placed on Eve's doings. The Earth and Nature responded as soon as she bit the fruit (which tasted good. I think that is a very very very very very important note.) Poor Adam. He comes over to see Eve indulging in the one forbidden fruit and goes white. He was astonished and horrified. Which, according to the true definition of horrified, is pretty bad. However, Adam's further reactions were quite honestly shocking to me. He explains how it was evil and how she's doomed to death. Then he talks about what he's going to do when she's gone! How he is going to die and how even if he can spare another rib, he'll still feel the pain of her being gone. Which, surprised me. Yet, it does make sense to me. Eve is straight from Adam's body. They're connected to each other. This isn't some Facebook friendship this is real. Adam is devastated. I find that very interesting.
*Clears Throat..* I am Logan Rice. I am a senior at Wren and look to attend the University of South Carolina after high school (Que all the stereotypical remarks about USC...) I am a musician and I believe that everything in life has a rhythm and a song to be sung. So music is obviously something I do a lot in my spare time. You might have seen me and my friends cover my role model (coughs..) Taylor Swift at the Talent Show as "Mermaid Man and the Barnacle Boys." We didn't win. Besides music, I go clubbing. And by clubbing I mean I harass young kids on Club Penguin until I get bounced. (That was a joke.)
But seriously, things about me. Geez.
1). My role model on this earth is Jon Foreman. He's an incredible musician, person, and a very "twitter-quoteable" guy.
2). I'm a very emotional person, which is cool. And it can get me in trouble. Either way, I try to invest 100% into things that I can do and get involved in.
3). I quote the movie "Hot Rod" at least twice a day. Probably not healthy.
4). Only a select few people truly understand my sense of humor, so most perceive me as a tremendously awkward person. Which I am perfectly okay with.
5). I am a true believer in doing what your passion is and not worrying about the worldly things that will pass away as soon as you do. I want to one day sit on my
porch as an old man smoking my pipe and be able to reminisce about all of the things I've done and say that I have lived life to the fullest potential possible.
6). This description of myself is way too deep.
7). My Spotify playlists are cooler than yours.
You can follow me on Twitter: @bloganrice and creep on my photos on Instagram @bloganrice and friend me on MySpace. Oh wait. Hahaha. Kidding.
So that's me.
{Creeper Status Fact of the Day} - I've known Mr. Alexander's fiance, Katelyn, since I was a wee young lad. Seriously though since I was like 6. So, take that Larissa.
"Hope is the Only Thing Stronger Than Fear" (Tweet that.)
Response to Genesis Chapters 1-3:
Entering in to this assignment and reading I challenged myself to do something that I have never really done in my entire life. Read the Bible from the perspective of one who hasn't heard it their entire life. I personally grew up in the church, literally. My parents were involved therefore I was involved. And from the classic 3 year old Sunday School Classrooms, Genesis was taught on those legit felt boards. Therefore I know these chapters fairly well but with a little taste of bias. Whether that was right or wrong, I don't really know. But anyways, here's my response:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That was the opening statement. Which, in itself is very incredible. I enjoy watching the sunset, sunrise, the stars. I've seen many many incredible scenes and quite frankly, art. So this statement is amazing. That one single God can create such a vast and infinite universe. Continuing on it describes how God created night and day, the waters and the land, etc etc. As the creation days continue God says "it was good." However, when God gets done with everything he steps back and says "it was very good." Which directly translates to, "Yeah, this world is perfect." And it was! God created man and woman later on in chapter two and their home (the Garden of Eden) was in the absolute perfect location (if any of you guys have studied where it was placed, the areas around it (the land, rivers, soil) the location itself was perfect.) Every dot on the hypothetical "i" was exactly as God wanted it to be. Which leads up to this question. Why would God (who is obviously all powerful considering he made the entire universe), let the Serpent come in and tempt? The one thing God said not to do, the Serpent pounces on and says "Hey. Do it."
The first thing I think of is when a parent tells a child not to touch the power outlet. Does the parent know what will happen? Yep. Does the kid know it's probably wrong since the parent clearly stated not to do it? Completely. What's the first thing the child does? Touch the outlet.
And that's what happened here. Eve touched the "outlet" the Creator told her not to. Not only that, but brought along the ol' husband to do it with her. (Thus proving guys will do things for a woman... but that's another point.) So they both touch the outlet. And God comes in and says, "Hey. You're going to get shocked" and furthermore sin enters the world for the first time.
And that's where the struggle occurs. I look back at what the Author of A Single Eye says stating that "sin" is just a figment of the imagination and all a concept. However, when you look at how Adam and Eve just straight took flight to hide themselves when they realized they were naked, something was there. That's the conflict of A Single Eye and The Bible. And quite frankly a major conflict in Christianity. Why would a perfect God let pure filth enter the world? Everything was set up for a story book. A fairy tale. Nothing would or could go wrong. Why didn't the "parent" pull the "child" away from the outlet?
And right at this point my Christian faith begins to step in. Which I'm going to not include in this response because I don't want to write a page. Or shove Christianity down the throat of the entire class.
I do look forward to discussing these topics in class and hearing the different sides and opinions of others.
(Quick side note: Ch. 2 V. 20 "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." This statement is grammatically incorrect. Why?)
Response to the Response:
Genesis 1-3
By Mallory McFerron
I am very impressed by your response! I like how you decided to read it from a different perspective. I too have read this over and over since childhood, but never actually dissected it from a different stand point. You pointed out God's use of "it was good" and finally "it was very good" which I noticed but did not reflect on in my response. I agree that this statement proves that God had created a perfect world. Which leads me to wonder the same question, why would He create something as evil as temptation to come along and ruin it? I believe He created the world knowing people would have the choice, just like Adam and Eve chose the sin of eating the forbidden fruit. I agree with the child/parent/light socket analogy. To comment on the question, "Why didn't the parent pull the child away from the outlet?" I think that the parent (God) wanted the child (Adam and Eve) to choose God over the temptation. Even though God knows ultimately what is going to happen in each one of our lifes', it pleases Him when we act according to His teaching. I enjoyed this discussion and your response, Logan!
Response to "On the Marionette Theatre":
This passage was challenging and very interesting because of how it was written. The writer used the parallel of a human puppet dancer versus an actual human dancing. At first I thought I didn't know exactly how that was going to play in. And as I continued reading my eyes were opened. I found this comparison interesting. The Puppet had no flaws in its dancing. However, it had no way to have flaws. The way it was used and created everything was perfectly intertwined and used. There was no way the Puppet could have screwed up. The Human dancer, however, could. It needed the ground unlike the Puppet. The Human's limbs couldn't move and work like the Puppet's. The Puppet was more graceful that the Human in every way. In fact, the author states that "Only a god can equal inanimate matter" when it comes to gracefulness. This comparison shows that we as Human's are flawed. We cannot be perfect. We fail everyday in our "dance" through life. However, this comparison also shows the need for the "god" that makes us graceful. We suck! We're terrible dancers. But because we suck, we realize that we have no have someone greater than us to make us graceful and beautiful. In conclusion to the passage the author tells a story about a bear fencing. A rather strange story. But the author asks the one listening, "do you believe me?". And he said "absolutely." He then discusses how when thought and "reason" diminish, grace abounds. That if we truly had no consciousness we would be like the puppet. But because we ate from the tree therefore gaining a consciousness of guilt and shame we aren't. But if we were!, then we'd be like a puppet in a god's hands. Therefore we'd need to reverse the eating of the fruit and the entering into the world to be perfect again. And the last line, truly my favorite. ""Of course", he said, "but that's the final chapter in the history of the world."" This line gives hope that one day, there will be a coming where we will be perfect again.
Response to the Response:
On the Marionette Theatre
By Mallory McFerron
Yes, i agree this passage was interesting as well as challenging! I liked how you went into detail at the perfection of the puppet. The use of the text is a great example of the puppet's gracefulness described. I never thought that our everyday is a "dance" through life and I'm glad you made that comparison. We both made the tie back to the fact that we as humans need a god that makes us graceful and beautiful (which makes me feel really smart BTW NBD!) I read that bear story literally scratching my head because I really didn't see the point in it beyond adding more words to the page (maybe the author, like me, was trying to reach a certain word limit.) Anyways, thanks for clearing that last part up for me. What you said def makes sense. Why couldn't I think of that? I guess the last line really does give us hope for the perfectness in our future!
Response to "Book One":
Book One was a rather difficult read. For one, the way it was written was different and you had to re-read some parts. It was also difficult because of the things said. The author is very bold in what he says. I found it very interesting how he discussed how Heaven, Hell, and Earth were derived from the same source: Chaos. This is an important detail because it shows that they are related. Their genetics are similar because they have the same parent (Chaos). He then discusses the fall of Satan from the Heavens and how Hell is their prison. However, Hell was already created before the fall of Satan. This is also a very important detail because it shows how God had created that even before the crime was committed (Proving His All-Knowingness... and Predestination?). Interesting thought to chew on. Later on in the story the author discusses how pain exists in the world (Around line 140). However, because the Almighty left His Spirit for us, we can endure the Warr and endure the pain because the Spirit will support us. (I think that's what the author intended...). Then, perhaps my favorite part of this book occurs around line 160. The author discusses how states "To do ought good never will be our task but ever to do ill our sole delight." This states that we not only do evil, but we want to do evil. We desire to do evil. It's our nature, better yet, our instinct. But later this is contrasted. "If then his Providence Out of our will seek to bring forth good." This is saying that God can make our evil hearts and arrange them into bringing forth good. This is very challenging. Think about it. This is saying that sin brings further glory to God. Not because of sin itself! But instead, because we're sinful and because we're broken we can bring even more glory to God. If everything was perfect, there would be no brokenness. If there was no brokenness there would be no hardship. If there was no hardship we couldn't have a testimony. Testimonies are emotional! It's why we get emotional when we see "Rags to Riches" stories. And what greater "Rags to Riches" story than sinning and having evil be not only a characteristic of us humans but our desire and yet it's still turned for good. That was my favorite part of the Book. There are many more things about this that I look forward to diving into in class and I'm glad we're going to discuss them because honestly there were some things I couldn't quite comprehend yet.
Response to the Response:
Book 1 Mallory McFerron
So I think you took this different than I did, but you said you opened your eyes so that's good. It is difficult to read! I really like that you talked about the discussion of Chaos. The way you broke down how they are related makes sense. I, too agree it's interesting to think about how God created Hell before the fall of Satan. Then the question comes up again, why would God let Satan do this? God could easily not allow Satan to rebel ect. Another interesting point is that Satan is pretty much digging his own grave. I think he's trying to make a big statement and not just go down easy. I still think the devil is being short sited to God's plan and over all power over him. The question still remains, why did Satan have to rebel? Later in your response, you talked about sin bringing glory to God, but I'm not sure that's what that line was trying to convey. I do agree with that, however. Overall, keep up the good work, and hopefully I will be able to understand it more, too!
Response to Book II:
I enjoyed the Second Book mainly due to the action and the talk back and forth. I have a hard time getting into book that are purely information and don't have much speech. So Book II's dialogue between Satan and his demons were nice. The plot thickens when Satan and his demons congregate and talk about the plan to go to war against God. I find this very interesting considering they all know the power of God. However, despite the circumstances they go to war. I find Satan to be a funny guy. Just how he set up the situation and planted the idea of how the war was going to happen. Then how Satan so quickly 'stepped up to the plate and took one for the team' as he is now going to go to Earth to fight the war with God. I wrestle with Satan's tactics though. I don't know whether it's a low blow that Satan is going to attack the things that God cares about the most (Adam and Eve), or strategic. Either way, neither side gets "Home Field Advantage" as Earth is the location for the war to come. Satan continues to contradict himself when it comes to being a monarchy or a tyrant after advertising the glory of a democracy, unlike heaven. I'm looking forward to the further readings to see exactly how everything plays out.
Mallory's Response the Response of Book 2:
Well we both agreed that we enjoyed the second book because of the plot and dialogue in it. I think the conversation allowed for more understanding of the overall book. I think its interesting that you think the Devil is funny. I too think he is a well developed character. To me, the situation of going to battle and volunteering himself does show strategic planning. He's plotted out attacking man kind on purpose. As well as being strategic, its also a low blow like you said. We don't have to think it was right for him to do, but in his defense it was smart. I never thought about neither of them having a "Home field advantage" because I guess I'm confused with who the war is exactly against, the devil vs humans or God? I feel like its against God and he has the advantage over Satan because he already knows the Devil's plan and actions before they take place. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading on.
Response to Books 9:
This was a very very challenging section for me personally. I don't really know why, but I feel like I have to choose a side between Eve and Adam. Eve explains her discontent and how her happiness, made by the "Maker wise" (God), is imperfect. She also questions how one can be happy when one is living in fear of sin and the 'foe'. Eve is really hammering home that she is not a happy person in the condition she is in, which I find to be quite interesting. Adam comes back and explains that nothing the Maker has done is imperfect. He then goes on to explain free-will and choice. The way I interpreted his explanation was interesting. (I don't know if I was right.) But he discussed how one has free-will to follow Reason, but the Creator made Reason right. Therefore, we choose to follow Reason, but Reason is controlled by God. Therefore, God has some sort of control in our lives. Which is challenging in itself because who wants to be controlled, right? I think Adam is completely right with all of my bias aside. However, I completely understand where Eve is coming from. If I was in Eve's situation not knowing any aspect of what's to come, I would be exactly like her in the sense of her question. Then the actual eating of the fruit occurs. Based on Milton's views from the previous books, I was surprised on how much emphasis was placed on Eve's doings. The Earth and Nature responded as soon as she bit the fruit (which tasted good. I think that is a very very very very very important note.) Poor Adam. He comes over to see Eve indulging in the one forbidden fruit and goes white. He was astonished and horrified. Which, according to the true definition of horrified, is pretty bad. However, Adam's further reactions were quite honestly shocking to me. He explains how it was evil and how she's doomed to death. Then he talks about what he's going to do when she's gone! How he is going to die and how even if he can spare another rib, he'll still feel the pain of her being gone. Which, surprised me. Yet, it does make sense to me. Eve is straight from Adam's body. They're connected to each other. This isn't some Facebook friendship this is real. Adam is devastated. I find that very interesting.