"Creation"

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth...God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good" - Genesis 1:1, 31.

In this chapter, Plantinga talks about many concepts related to creation, including the meaning of the Christian doctrine of creation, why God created the universe and us, and what our roles are as beings in a now fallen world. Also an important point that the author makes that we are not God ourselves, but only images of God. The creation story supports the fact that we are images of God, whereas the evolutionary theory supports the idea that we are our own God. "We are not God, but only images of God" is what I will focus my thoughts on.

Suppose for a moment that we are our own God. Although we may not always see it, there are many people even in our society today that think they are the God of their own their universe. This belief is definitely supported by the theory of evolution, because if evolution is true, we are "mere products of natural selection working off random genetic mutations". Not only does this make me feel unimportant and more like an animal than a human, but if looked at more carefully shows that there is really no purpose to life. Thus, if there is no purpose to life, I might as well be the God of my own universe. When this is someone's belief, it introduces the concept of creative anti-realism which Plantinga also talks about. This means that there is no certain "way things are", but what is true for one person may not be true for someone else. Plantinga explains it as: "what's true is what's "true for you," and what's true is also what's "true for me." Both truths are true, even if they conflict". Creative anti-realism disregards morality, and everything becomes relative which logically does not work - so what we need is a moral standard, absolute truth. In order to have absolute truth, everyone must agree on truth, and as opposed to the definition of anti-realism, what's true for you must also be the same truth for me. Can you see now how it does not work to be our own God, which in turn also poses a problem for evolution. I agree with Prof. Ribeiro's comment in class when he said that he was not against evolution, but simply the ideology behind the theory of evolution. What I just described is one of those ideas, or dare I say - a flaw.

Since we cannot be our own God, we must be made in the image of God, like the bible suggests. Because we are made in God's image, and because we live in a fallen world, our mission as Christians is to become like him. "According to God's intelligence, the way to thrive is to help others to thrive; the way to flourish is to cause others to flourish; the way to fulfill yourself is to spend yourself. Jesus himself tried to get this lesson across to his disciples by washing their feet, hoping to ignite a little of the trinitarian life in them". I think this is a beautiful quote, as it illustrates truth. The truth is that we flourish when we help others flourish, and since this is according to God, it is a valuable lesson on how to live. It is essential to live for others and not ourselves. Remember that we are not God, so we must live for the one who is our God. The fact that Jesus himself set this example of spending himself for others by washing the disciples' feet reveals his humility. This is the example that we should follow as we strive to become more like Christ. God did not have to create us, neither was it an accident. He chose to create us out of love, as part of his nature - and that I feel is in itself a good enough reason for us to thrive in order to help others thrive; and for us to flourish to cause others to flourish, and in the fullness of time to redeem our fallen world so that God may once again gaze upon the world and 'see that indeed, it is very good'.