Is the Physical World Basically Good or Evil?

[Josh]

"A fully biblical worldview requires that we hold tightly to..... first, the goodness and God-givenness of the present creation: the whole earth is full of YHWH's glory, and any attempt to suggest that the created order is bad or shabby is a denial of that glorious truth. But, second, as Isaiah protests, the world is also full of radical evil, of human wickedness and its fruits, and to deny that is to live in a sentimental cloud-cuckoo-land. Sometimes, as in Gnosticism but not in scripture, this second truth is allows to trump the first, so that the evil in the world blots out the recognition of goodness, of the presence of the creator's glory."

NT Wright, Surprised by Scripture, page 201

Thoughts?

[asaph]

Creation is always good. The world is cursed, by sin. I do not know as that makes the physical world evil. I mean, can anyone look at a humming bird and see evil? Can we look at the mountains and see evil? Christ has a voice which sounds like many waters. The peaceful stream, the rushing river, the blast of the waves against the rocks, the gentle tide rolling in.

The only place I see evil is in the human race. Nature is under a curse. Some animals do what they do because of the curse. Humans choose to act evil.