Plantinga’s chapter on the fall takes a look at the Reformed position on evil in the world. The focus of this chapter was not so much on the lack of goodness in the world, but the hope that we have as Christians. Evil is not diminished in this chapter. On the contrary, Plantinga paints a lot of sad pictures. But he is quick to emphasize that these pictures are not the end of the story. The world was good originally, and evil took that goodness and twisted it. What is important about this is the fact that “the goodness is still there” (52). After establishing that creation can be redeemed, Plantinga looks at the way that God’s creation has been twisted. Humans have corrupted creation by perverting and polluting it. It is important to note that EVERYTHING has been thus corrupted. After establishing the ways in which we have twisted creation, Plantinga looks at who is to blame for this.
This last section of the reading really does not give a very satisfying answer for the origin of evil. Unfortunately, this issue is one that people have struggled with their entire lives without coming up with satisfactory answers. It is only natural for Christians to question the origin of evil. Plantinga establishes that “God is perfectly holy” (62). The evil cannot have come from God. God created everything, however. A lot of people say that evil is in the world because God gave us freewill. The freewill argument seems to be the most followed explanation of evil in the Christian religion. There are things that we just cannot know and Plantinga raises a lot of questions like this in the chapter.
One question that was raised that particularly interested me is “Is carnivorousness a part of God’s original design?” (65) This is not a question that I had thought about before. Being completely used to the idea of humans always eating meat, I was really surprised by this question. It seems that, originally, God would have made all of his creations to live together in harmony. No animal would have eaten another, and humans would not have eaten animals. Does this mean that we should not eat meat? Jesus did, so I think that it is fine for humans to eat meat. Being more conscious about where we are getting our food and how it is getting to us would not be a bad thing however. All of God’s creatures deserve respect, even in death. Eating locally or cutting out some meats that have inhuman slaughter practices would be a good idea. All of God’s creatures deserve respect.
I like your comments about where sin comes from. I have always assumed that evil came from Satan. I would not say that because of freewill we have sin, that would give freewill more 'power' in a sense than it should have. I think that sin originated from the devil, after all, without his temptations it seems unlikely that Eve AND Adam would have eaten the apple. As tradition has it, Satan was a fallen angel and he took with him many other angels as they separated from God. I believe that evil must have come from somewhere along that history. Only when God created his creation did Satan introduce this evil into the previously perfect creation through the one door of free-choice. Just an idea.
ReplyDeletethe origin of evil is one of those things that we're just not going to completely be sure about in this life, if ever. I think your explanation Drew just takes us back a step further because then instead of asking where did the evil in adam and eve come from we're just asking where did the evil in satan come from. And then we're back to the whole idea that it's free will because satan chose to rebel.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to remember that "the goodness is still there" because often people see the world as evil and think that all the good is gone from the earth because it was corrupted in the beginning. However, this is the earth that God still created. Those things that God created are good initially they are just a little covered in sin at the moment. Upon the second coming of Christ everything will become pure and perfectly clear again. Until then we are still called to take care of God's earth even if it is not perfect now. God still created it for us and so we have a responsibility to tend to it for all of our days.
ReplyDeleteYes, all of God's creatures deserve respect. I think about the implications of God saving all the animals on the ark. But I am an ethical hunter and see that as a great thing. I see where you're coming from and agree that inhumane slaughtering is wrong, and it bothers me when some people against inhumane slaughtering would have something against hunters.
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