The Fall Due to Disturbance of Reason

In Paradise Lost, Milton displays a personal concern to discover the answers tot he political and religious turmoil of his time and the Fall of Man was one of those hotly debated issues.  Paradise Lost is in a way a new Bible containing answers to the debated theological and political issues during this time.  The previous Puritan ideas concerning the Fall of Man saw the reason for original sin as purely sexual for which Milton offered a different explanation.  Milton determines that the split of reason in Adam and Eve led to the Fall.  It is through reason that man achieves a heavenly love transcending carnal love (VIII. 590-93).  Satan rather disturbs human's reason in order to enact The Fall.  Satan utilizes the need for true knowledge due to a feeling of insecurity to disturb the reason and therefore lead to The Fall.