1. In the beginning, when Jesus created the heaven and the earth, 2. The earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters (Genesis 1: 1-2). Then God said “Let there be light, and the light was there, and God called light “day” and darkness “night”.
When both gods imagined “Earth” land formed from the darkness. They thought of trees, plants, mountains and valleys, water and sky. All of which appeared from the darkness. Thus Earth was formed.
In the beginning there was nothing. The world at first was an endless space and the earth was unfinished. This is how many creation stories begin. The creation of the world is something many try to decipher. People create myths and legends about the first days of the vast universe and anything that pertains it.
This is compared to the second pillar of Enuma Elish where it states, “He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane… He sent forth the winds which he had created.” He was looking over His creation, not just earth but all of the foundation of the universe. Now in Enuma Elish Marduk the Babylonian god is said to have created the earth as a purpose to serve the gods, which he did with Ea, his father who helped him create humans.
With my own personal views in mind, I have come to the conclusion that goodness cannot be defined, it changes with ones morals and in the end it should be a personal decision if one contains goodness or not. It seems that goodness was not wanted on the
“I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not believe” (Lewis 35). This quote from C.S. Lewis opens The Rival Conceptions of God, the first chapter of the second book of Mere Christianity. Why would Lewis, a former Atheist, be discussing what Christians believe? Why would Lewis begin his chapter this way? Lewis also gives an answer to the all-important question – if God is good, why has the world gone wrong?
In The Eyes are Watching God, the author Zora Neale Hurston expresses the struggles of women and black societies of the time period. When Hurston published the book, communities were segregated and black communities were full of stereotypes from the outside world. Janie, who represents the main protagonist and hero, explores these communities on her journey in the novel. Janie shows the ideals of feminism, love, and heroism in her rough life in The Eyes. Janie, as the hero of the novel, shows the heroic qualities of determination, empathy, and bravery.
In the rival conceptions of God, Lewis divides humanity into two main groups; those who believe in God or gods and those who do not. Those who believe in God, Lewis divides into two subgroups. The first, Pantheists view God as “beyond good and evil” (Lewis, 1980) as if God and the universe are one. The second, Christians view God as the absolute good Creator, separate from His creation.
1) in the beginning. An unlikely pair, Wisaka and Muskrat, who lives in the beginning, work together to create Earth. Even though a majority of creation myths depict a void in the beginning, some do not, such as “How the World Was Made”, an interesting creation myth from none other than the Cherokee. In the creation myth “How the World Was Made” the Cherokee do not include a time before the Earth was created. Instead, the Cherokee begin by describing Earth as “a great island floating in a sea of water…suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock” (Cherokee para. 1).
The Bible describes it; ‘….the earth was without form and void… and darkness was upon the face of the deep’ (NKJVGenesis 1:2) and a similar claim is made in Hesiod’s Theogony which alleges that in the beginning there was only confusion of Chaos and unbroken darkness.
In this reading reflection I will be discussing Richard Swinburne’s argument on “Why God Allows Evil” which starts on page 254 in “Exploring Philosophy: An Anthology” by Steven M. Cahn. This was also discussed in class on 9/15/16. In his argument Swinburne states that “An omnipotent God could have prevented this evil, and surely a perfectly good and omnipotent God would have done so. So why is there evil?”(Swinburne, 254).
As evident in the dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro, whatever the gods justify as virtuous is unquestionable because holiness is dependent on God (Indiana University 18). Euthyphro states, the holy is that which is loved by gods (Indiana University 18). Something is moral if it pleases God. God being good, He loves only that which is good thus He wills to be moral only that which is good. The understanding of the goodness of God should be done metaphysically and not morally.
The problem of evil takes into account three defining features of God: all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful and questions whether such a God would permit evil and not interfere. Sinnott-Armstrong discusses his stance by countering responses he coins as the Glorious Response, the Modest Response, and the Overriding Response. Whereas, Craig counters the arguments made by Sinnott-Armstrong. The Glorious Response Thus response suggests evil is
God gave us his word and teachings through the Bible. There you can find all things that are virtuous, and it commands us to dwell upon these things in Philippians 4:8: Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. (NKJV Phil. 4:8) Here God is telling us to “meditate” on all things that are good and virtuous and describes what is good and virtuous. (NKJV Phil. 4:8).
On the European side similarly to the Native Americans water got created before land too. The bible explains the process they believed occurred, “ ….And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so…”. The water gathering together shows that first there was only water and then it got together on one place, and then the term “dry land” got brought which simply means that land and the Earth was created after water. However, the difference here is that the Europeans believed that God was a male figure.
