Milton's Argument

            Milton's argument, in brief, was that precensorship of authors was little more than an excuse for state control of thought. Recognizing that some means of accountability was necessary to ensure that libellous or other illegal works were kept under control, Milton felt this could be achieved by ensuring the legal responsibility of printers and authors for the content of what they published. .
             John Milton makes an argument against censorship.
             In other words, Adam had a choice to make. He knew better. And yet he still chose evil over good. This choice is what lead to his downfall. Let me now try to put this concept of knowing good and evil into perspective: If a 3 year old commits murder, he/she is not trialed the same way as if a 16 year old committed the same act. Obviously, the 3 year old doesn't really know any better, at least that is what would probably be his defense. While on the other hand, the 16 year old might be trialed as an adult. The teenager knows better. He knows right from wrong. And in this case, the teenager chose to do wrong thing. .
             Milton's overall argument in this section: We can consider one who chooses good in the face of evil to be virtuous. One who chooses good without knowing evil is not virtuous, since no actual choice is being made.
             In other words, it takes a strong man to do good. But it takes an even stronger man to do good while being tempted to do evil. A person's true colors can be measured by the way he/she handles evil.
             as we desire others to do nice things for us because they want to, so God desires for man to choose good by choice. God put the tree of life before Adam to give him a choice; if Adam chose to obey, then he could be praised for making a conscience decision to do what is right. .
             Even if eliminating temptation as a way to eliminate sin were possible, it would be going against what God started in the beginning. When He set the forbidden tree before Adam it gave him the freedom of choice; so on the same token, if books are censored, the freedom of choice, our God given freedom is being denied.