There was one section in this chapter that made me really think. This quote from Plantinga, "Creation was neither a necessity nor an accident." In no way did God have to create us if he did not really want to. Plantinga also mentions that God had everything that he ever wanted before he created the earth and human beings. God never suffered from boredom or loneliness he had his son and the holy spirit to keep him company. All in all he was probably perfectly happy with how he was. The only explanation for why he would create us is an overwhelming abundance of love that God possesses. We as human beings provide many difficulties and problems for God, yet he does not hesitate to love us with all his might and want the best for not some but every single one of his creations.
Another point that I wanted to discuss was about God's creation and the goodness off it. In class there was a few comments about whether God's creation is all good when we bring in the fact that we are part of a fallen world. I believe as does Plantinga that every part of God's creation has some form of goodness. This quote from Plantinga helps to show his view," everything made by God retains some of its goodness and promise." The great philosopher Augustine would also agree with this statement and has a reason why. The people who would doubt this statement would probably use the argument, how can everything be good when there is so much evil in the world. My answer to this question would be that evil is not really a thing, it is just the absence of good. An analogy would be if good represented a beach and you dug a hole in that beach, the evil would be the hole. You cannot physically pick up that hole or touch it, but it is there. Every Christian would agree that God is completely good, so how could a completely good being create anything that was not good?
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The topic of evil in the world that God created and called "good" is always an interesting one. People get all caught up in terminology of it: For example: Is evil really the absence of good, or the distortion of something good? It is true that God did not create evil, but Satan didn't create it either. Is it possible that Satan merely corrupted and distorted and warped what God created to be good, or is evil a kind of separate entity in itself? Or, as you said, is it like a hole, the mere absence of good?
ReplyDeleteSome food for thought :)