I know we were talking about our favorite moments in PL today, and definitely one of my favorites is on pg 163 when Raphael says to Adam "Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall" (V.539-540). This quote struck me because of how true it is and because it says a lot about the relationship that God has with man and visa versa.
Moreover, this quote can be applied to life and human relationships. For example, are do we pick and choose who we love, or is love an innate emotion that we as humans cannot control? If the latter is true, then this quote reminds me of the "free love" concept of the 60s because humans have the ability to act upon their instinct and be with the ones they love. If the previous is true, then this leads me to believe that we choose the ones we love.
Its an awesome quote regardless and can be looked into in many ways. I think that its so true that we have a will to love or not to love, which ties into many other human emotions, which leads to either our rise or fall.
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Great choice. I kind of agree and yet disagree. Apparently, cocaine and love have the same chemical effect.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there isn't much of a choice in loving God. It's a duty. As for Adam and Eve, where's the choice?
What effect on the brain does cocaine and love have exactly Raju? Such similar chemical release can be a powerful thing, no?
ReplyDeleteStill, excluding the biology and neurology from this conversation, you make a good point that there is NOT much choice in loving God. We have the choice to love or not love, respect or not respect, obey or not obey. The latter of all these results in punishment and exile.
Perhaps then it is our responsibility to choose to remain steadfast to our duty.
Still, this logic severely problematizes the idea of free will. Are we built only to "freely fall"?
Why would be built only to "freely fall?" Perhaps we are built to remain "steadfast to our duty" by virtue of being self aware. This is the beauty of being human: G-d gave us the ability to know ourselves and choose to stay away from punishment and exile so that we can enjoy serving Him.
ReplyDeleteThe only uncomfortable thing in the matter of serving G-d is that we are only given one body, one mind, one spirit. We cannot escape that. Therefore, the categories that we fall under due to epistemology is something that we can never escape and forces us to act accordingly due to who and what we are (what our parents are, grandparents, where we were raised, etc).
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ReplyDeleteProf D- So apparently love and cocaine both trigger the part of our brain that releases dopamine and other necessary physio-chemical reactions, that make them both highly addictive. It's the part of the brain that makes us crave and want, and it's involved with our rewards. So it literally makes us addicted to said reactions. (just an interesting tid-bit). A lot of interesting studies regarding god and psychology/biology.
ReplyDeleteLilly- I totally agree with your point about the categories that we fall under due to our upbringing. Therefore, a murderer or even a petty criminal should not be punished in the eyes of God, though we (humans) call it "rehabilitation," because their actions are merely an outcome of their own everyday experiences, which they "seem" to have little control over.
Then again, I expect a fellow human being not to kill or steal for me, the same way I would control myself to avoid said occurrences. However, when such occurrences do occur, we can easily go to the route of psychology/biology and explain how they had absolutely no control over that moment, we can't possibly rearrange their thoughts/psyche/physio-chemical reactions.
In my warped lens of the world, I see ourselves as God. The same way we forgive for everyday occurrences that cause us pain, etc., God does the same, through redemption/prayer. And the same way we refuse forgiveness for certain acts/crimes, God does the same, hence the need for hell/prison/restraining orders/avoidance/hate. But sometimes, you need to put some people into hell, in order for heaven to maintain itself, i.e. God expelling satan. The same way we put criminals into jail in order to maintain our own societies, our own shot of happiness. For me, the ultimate question for God is whether satan will ever gain grace, while satan’s trying to figure out a way to take the throne. This is as anthropomorphic as it can get.