Milton's Paradise

Milton's Paradise Lost is a grand piece of work.  In fact, the epic, along with the mythology surrounding it, is quite likely one of my favorite subjects in literature.  This is partly due to the fact that I, unlike most, view the entire mythology - that is, religious and specifically christian texts - to be fictitious.  The stories of Dante and the fall of Satan are fantastic and grandiose, as they are deeply ingrained into our primarily christian culture.  These pieces are phenomenal, and even for those who do not believe in christian ideology, their immense impact is not significantly diminished.

My enjoyment of these stories might shock some people, who know my thoughts on religion, but they possess a sense of awe and spectacle that simply isn't present in most of the literature that I've read.  The reason for this is obvious; the stories were written from the perspective of someone who literally believed the subject matter and intended to perpetuate it.  One would hardly expect a story explaining the origin of the universe to be boring.  Part of my enjoyment also comes from the analysis of these stories, and previous performance of such analysis (among other things) is why I no longer subscribe to christian faith.  The flaws present in God's character are great subjects for philosophic discussion, and they should be discussed thoroughly.

Honestly, though, I don't understand why people believe in these things.  I actually believed in them myself, for a time, though I don't know how much I actually believed.  When I was younger, I never took the time to think about what it was that I believed in.  Through the years, I actually started wondering what I thought about religion, and  I stopped believing in god and religion altogether.  I then began viewing all religious stories such as these through a different lens, as it were.  I no longer bothered to believe in them, but this made be better at analyzing them.  It's much easier to see the flaws in a piece of work when one doesn't need to incorporate it into his or her ideology.

I have digressed, but my point remains obvious; Paradise Lost and stories like it are tremendously important for their literary, rather than their religious, content.  Though I do not believe in them or even fully understand why others do, I fully recognize their importance.