Plantinga Chapter 2

The point that struck me the most during our discussion about Plantinga was that God didn’t need to create us. Plantinga said “ Creation was neither a necessity nor an accident” this passage means a lot to me and it seemed like a lot of other students in the class. Plantinga highlights that God had everything he needed before we came into the picture. God wasn’t lonely (he always has the trinity), he wasn’t bored and he was perfectly happy, he didn’t in any context need to create us. I think that this shows an overwhelming amount of love that God possesses. To want to create beings that, in the end, only cause him grief and anger, and to continue to love and cherish them as his own shows how awesome our God really is.

During the Christmas sermon at my church the priest said “sometimes we make God so divine that he is unreachable.” When I think of all the things that God can do and all the ways that we constantly let him down I sometimes think that there is no way we can ever be at a level where we are even worthy to be in his presence. But Plantinga reminds us of this overwhelming love that God has and some of the barriers that are put up between God and his creation are broken down. One member of our group said during discussion that whatever we do, do it to glorify God” this is another way that we can make ourselves worthy to be with him.

During class discussion the topic of things being inherently good or evil came up. Some people think that things are born good and there is no evil, just the absence of good. Others think that things can definitely be evil. I can’t say that I feel confident enough to stand behind one argument because they both have very convincing cases. C.S. Lewis said that “Evil is a parasite, it is there because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.” I found this really important to remember because evil can’t just be born, or bad things can’t just happen, it all starts from something good. The most important thing is to realize when a good thing is being corrupted and how to help it remain good.