I don´t know if you are aware that in a recent video Alvin Plantinga speaks rather positively about universalism, indeed says that a Christian should be a hopeful universalist (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhohcPhMdxs ). Two academic philosophers at Prosblogion wrote that years ago Plantinga had told them that universalism seemed to him more likely to be true than not.
I like to look at it like this: Darkness does not exist. It is not a tangible thing. Light on the other hand, does exist. We can see it and we can feel it. Darkness is simply the absence of light. Likewise, cold is the absence of heat. It does not go any lower than absolute zero (the total absence of heat), but heat can increase forever if it has enough fuel. The point is this: Evil is not tangible either. Evil is simply the absence of God and His love. Evil is what we think that we see when we reject God's love in our hearts, the same way that we think that we see darkness when we turn the lights off or think we feel cold when there is no heat. We are not seeing something tangible, we are seeing the absence of something. We do not see darkness, we simply recognize that there is no light; we do not feel cold, we simply feel no heat; we do not see evil all around us, what we see is the absence of God's love in a broken world. The other funny thing about that, is that the two cannot exist together. When there is light, there is no darkness - there is only darkness when there is no light; When there is warmth, there is no cold - there is only cold when there is no warmth; When there is the love of God, there is no evil - there is only evil when God's love is absent from our hearts - when people reject God's love or simply do not know it because they have never heard of it before. There is no evil when there is love.
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I don´t know if you are aware that in a recent video Alvin Plantinga speaks rather positively about universalism, indeed says that a Christian should be a hopeful universalist (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhohcPhMdxs ). Two academic philosophers at Prosblogion wrote that years ago Plantinga had told them that universalism seemed to him more likely to be true than not.
Darkness does not exist. It is not a tangible thing. Light on the other hand, does exist. We can see it and we can feel it. Darkness is simply the absence of light.
Likewise, cold is the absence of heat. It does not go any lower than absolute zero (the total absence of heat), but heat can increase forever if it has enough fuel.
The point is this: Evil is not tangible either. Evil is simply the absence of God and His love. Evil is what we think that we see when we reject God's love in our hearts, the same way that we think that we see darkness when we turn the lights off or think we feel cold when there is no heat. We are not seeing something tangible, we are seeing the absence of something.
We do not see darkness, we simply recognize that there is no light; we do not feel cold, we simply feel no heat; we do not see evil all around us, what we see is the absence of God's love in a broken world.
The other funny thing about that, is that the two cannot exist together.
When there is light, there is no darkness - there is only darkness when there is no light;
When there is warmth, there is no cold - there is only cold when there is no warmth;
When there is the love of God, there is no evil - there is only evil when God's love is absent from our hearts - when people reject God's love or simply do not know it because they have never heard of it before. There is no evil when there is love.