Chapter 3 of Plantinga's Engaging God's World is entitled, The Fall. What I thought was very unique about this chapter was that it began with the lyrics to the song "This is My Father's World." Plantinga goes on to explain that this song only gives the picture of the beauty in creation, and not the effects of the fall that we see. Plantinga talked about many different aspects of the fall, especially the evil that is in the world. He defines evil as "any spoiling of shalom, any deviation from the way God wants things to be." He also says that the reason God is against sin is because "God is for shalom and therefore against sin." This to me is an interesting way to think about why God doesn't like sin.
Another reason that Plantinga says God is against evil is because "evil is a kind of parasite on goodness." He also says: "Badness is twisted goodness, polluted goodness, divided goodness." This really connected me back to Lewis' article on subjectivism, and how God is wholly and completely good and is at the center of goodness. It really struck me that this is a big reason why God hates evil so much. If God is the epitome of goodness, and if evil twists, pollutes, and divides goodness, it's like doing all of those things to God himself.
It was interesting to read about corruption in people. It was especially eye-opening for me when I read about how an idolater can be defined as one who puts something at the same level of God. Normally when I think of idolatry, I think of putting something above God, but Plantinga says that it is also idolatry if we put anything alongside God. This made me look back and wonder what I put equal to God in my life. How do I actually spend all of my time, even though I know how I should be spending it all? What do I "love" that I put on an equal pedestal with God?
With all of this realization of the fall and how sinful we really are, it's such a comfort to know that we have hope. Jesus Christ died to save us from our fallen nature and all of the evil that is in and around us. What a great and unbelievable comfort we have!
I don't know what I think about Plantinga saying that badness is twisted goodness. In a way I think that he is saying things we have are different now because of the fall; they are no longer perfect because of sin. Plants for example are a beautiful gift from God, but because of the corrupt earth they sometimes die, or have weeds grow around them. They sometimes die or have weeds grow around them now because of the fall which means we have to tend to them and all other things on earth, I think, more than we would have before the fall. Good blog!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with Abigail. I wonder where evil originates from. It makes sense that it twists and turns good things into bad, but where does this originate from? It seems like this is something we will never know on this world.
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