Plantinga Chapter 3

Plantinga says that “creation speaks out both sides of its mouth now. It still sings and rings, but it also groans.” This is a really clear way of describing the fall. Some people may think that creation is still perfect and others may think that the whole thing has been tainted with sin. But I think that the truth is that all that God made good is still there and it is still good, but the fact remains that creation has been affected by sin and it no longer exists with just the good but also the bad.

Plantinga also says that “Evil is the main human problem.” I thought this was interesting when I first read it because in class last week we had the discussion of whether or not there is actually evil in the world or if there is just the absence of good. It sounds like Plantinga is clearly saying that there is evil. But then Plantinga goes on to say that “Evil is a kind of parasite on goodness” and that “evil needs good in order to be evil” which suggests that he believes that evil is only the absence of good.

Something that I thought connected really well to the Screwtape letters was when Plantinga said that “Satan goes to church more than anybody else because he knows that, at a particular time and place, a corrupt church can devastate the cause of the gospel.” Screwtape said that the church goer was easy to pull down the wrong path because they could still think that they were being a good person. Plantinga points out the same thing.