Well, I've completed work on the first post to the series. Here's the first draft.
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Journey of a World Builder
Forward

In recent times there has been a great return to the writing and reading of stories about the fantastic. Fantasy novels fall under a lot of classifications, “high fantasy” and “pixie-dust” to name a few. Despite their various names, they all share a common theme of exploring the impossible or the unbelievable.

This series is targeted mainly at aspiring writers of Tolkien-esque high fantasy, but it will have value to all writers of fantasy, perhaps even to writers of other genres such as science fiction.

Part One: Fundamental Principals
Article One: The God Factor

The purpose of the Fundamental Principals is go through several truths that writers of Christian Fantasy writers must include. I will begin with perhaps the most important, God.

God, specifically the God of Israel, must exist in some way in your books. Examples range from Chronicles of Narnia, in which God goes by a different name and operates under a different form, to The Door Within Trilogy, in which God makes physical experiences as the allegorical King.
God is the foundation of everything we believe. God should be the foundation of everything we write. Fantasy stories with God are like creation without the creator. After all, humans really only practice what some call “sub-creation,” God actually created the raw materials, including our minds, that we put together to mold a fantasy story.
Christian fantasy doesn’t need to be “preachy,” but I think that including God is hardly preachy, it’s really respectful.

However, we now find ourselves in the dangerous territory of portraying God. So, let’s talk about portrayals of God in various works of fiction.
The most obvious is Aslan, and the Great Emperor Over the Sea, of Lewis’s Narnia. Aslan says at one point that he must follow the rules of the great magic. The great magic is set in place by his father, the Emperor. At first, this seems a relatively obvious statement. After all, God is incapable of sinning.

But the reason God cannot sin is because God’s law is formed out of his personality. He is not subject to the law, because the law is simply a manifestation of his Godly nature. If he went against his nature, he would no longer be God. In fact, because God is unchanging, he cannot go against his nature.

I have nothing against what Aslan said, But I think it was food for a good conversation.

Another portrayal is the allegorical portrayal of God, the King of Wayne Thomas Batson’s The Door Within Trilogy. Batson avoids having the King say anything that God wouldn’t say by essentially making everything the King says a paraphrase of various biblical passages.

I think this is a good idea. To avoid a wrong portrayal or understanding of God, in the case that you actually write something your Godly character says at some point, you can simply write paraphrased statements from the bible.

But perhaps the most profound portrayal of God is Tolkien’s Iluvatar. Iluvatar was perhaps meant to demonstrate the all-powerful, all-knowing aspects of God’s person. It can be also be noted that there are several times that Iluvatar interacts dramatically like God in the Old Testament, not visible to humanity, but at the same time performing powerful, undeniable miracles.

To cap off what I’ve said, I’ll recommend several different books to read while deciding how you would like to portray God in your story. (Please note that by portray I do not mean to cast in a certain light, I merely mean to write about Him in some way within a fictional story.)

The Chronicles of Narnia(C.S. Lewis) : Analyze Aslan’s behavior and speech and see how it lines up with what is said about God and Jesus in the bible.

The Door Within Trilogy (Wayne Thomas Batson): Analyze the way the King interacts with his subjects, and see how it lines up with Gods interaction with the saints.

The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien): Analyze Iluvatar’s behavior in the Music of the Ainur and see how it compares with what the bibles says about God’s character.

Thank you for reading,
-Neil of Erk

Sorry it took so long to get to this! My profuse apologies.

I really like it. It is nicely ordered and written. There are a few parts that I think need clarification, though, to make it easier to understand. I will point out typos later.

1) I would prefer you said "God of the Bible" instead of "God of Israel." This is the more commonly understood term to use for clarification, and it has less doctrinal confusions.

2) Explain in a separate paragraph what you mean by 'preachy' and how we ought to avoid it. This, I believe, is an important issue that needs to be dealt with in this sort of article.

3) Your discussion of Aslan's comment, while interesting and thought provoking, is not directly connected to the theme of the article. It needs to be clarified how it is connected, or focus on a different aspect of Aslan.

Does that help?

Ah yes, typos...

Sorry, that didn't occur to me until I read what you said. I'll change all of those.

I've written a paragraph or two about it.

Ah! I didn't realize I'd forgotten to connect it.

It does indeed! I'll post the revised draft once I've finished it. I'm pretty busy over the weekend, so it may not come before Tuesday.

Here are my ideas/observations:



I think you mean "Fantasy stories without God are like creation without the creator."



I would eliminate the "I think" from this phrase; it makes the sentence sound uncertain or makes it seem that this is only your personal opinion. Including God is not preachy and it is respectful. Period.



I don't see how this connects with the overall message of the article... you are going to write something showing how the whole Aslan thing connects to your article, right? Also, the b in but should not be capitalized and was should be is. (That was just my personal opinion.)



Once again, I would eliminate the "I think". Good idea, by the way.



I just noticed a few nit-picky details... there should be a space after the word Narnia and no space between the end parentheses and the colon. And should bible be capitalized?

Great article, Neil, I love it. I can't wait for you to start publishing this series on the blog.

These are just my suggestions.

You were right on all counts, and yes, I'm going to explain the Aslan paragraph, and how it ties into the rest of the story.

I'm working on the draft.

Looks good to me! Other people already noticed what I was going to say, so I won't repeat it. You have me thinking! (hmmm....maybe I should go back over Ri's dialogue)

I've completed the next draft. As an extra precaution against poor writing, I have also sent this draft to my mother. Have at it! (Please note: I can't copy my formatting over from word, and re-formatting an entire document is a pain, so this draft is unformatted. The final copy posted to the blog will be properly formatted.)
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Journey of a World Builder

Forward

In recent times there has been a great return to the writing and reading of stories about the fantastic. Fantasy novels fall under a lot of classifications, “high fantasy” and “pixie-dust” to name a few. Despite their various names, they all share a common theme of exploring the impossible or the unbelievable.

This series is targeted mainly at aspiring writers of Tolkien-esque high fantasy, but it will have value to all writers of fantasy, perhaps even to writers of other genres such as science fiction.

Part One: Fundamental Principals

Article One: The God Factor

The purpose of the Fundamental Principals is to explore several truths that writers of Christian Fantasy writers must include. I will begin with perhaps the most important, God.

God, specifically the God of the Bible, must exist in some way in your books.

Examples range from Chronicles of Narnia, in which God goes by a different name and operates under a different form, to The Door Within Trilogy, in which God makes physical appearances as the allegorical King.

God is the foundation of everything we believe. God should be the foundation of everything we write. Fantasy stories without God are like creation without the creator. After all, humans really only practice what some call “sub-creation,” God actually created the raw materials, including our minds, that we put together to mold a fantasy story.

While God is a necessity for a Christian fantasy, there is the danger of being to preachy about God.

Many of us use our writings as tools to demonstrate truths, and that’s good. But many of us go about the demonstration in the wrong way, and the result is what people call “preachy” writing. In my experience, “preachy” is really a stylistic problem.

An author has two basic means to communicate a truth, outright stating a truth, or demonstrating a truth through our writing. Stating a truth, through means of having a character make an argument in defense of a truth, for example, is appropriate for some truths. However, there are others truth which are more adequately explained through the story itself.

Suppose that, using the second method, I wish to demonstrate that God is all-powerful. I can do this by have God override laws of physics in my story, demonstrating that God is above the laws of physics. Wonderful (though debatably too plentiful) examples of this technique can be found in L. B. Graham’s Binding of the Blade series.

The reason that these two methods receive different receptions is what author Christopher Hopper calls the “dragons” of our minds. We set up guards in our minds to protect us from thoughts we don’t like. A well told story can get in the “back-door” of our minds, getting past the dragons without our noticing. Of course, this can be used negatively to try to get an un-truth past your dragons without you noticing. Do not be caught unaware.

Be careful how you go about this method though, for we now find ourselves in the dangerous territory of portraying God. It’s important to consult the Bible in all matters, and special care should be taken in this area. So, let’s talk about portrayals of God in various works of fiction.

The most obvious is Aslan of Lewis’s Narnia. For the sake of discovering some of the pitfalls one can come across when writing about God, I will analyze a statement of Aslan’s.

Aslan says at one point that he must follow the rules of the great magic. The great magic is set in place by his father, the Emperor. At first, this seems a relatively obvious statement. After all, God is incapable of sinning.

But the reason God cannot sin is because God’s law is formed out of his personality. He is not subject to the law, because the law is simply a manifestation of his Godly nature. If He went against His nature, He would no longer be God. In fact, because God is unchanging, He cannot go against His nature.

One can see how Lewis easily slipped into writing something un-true. This is why care must be taken while writing about or for God. Because we cannot fully understand God, we often fall into believing things that are not true about him simply because we haven’t seen what the Bible has to say about the matter.
Another portrayal is the allegorical portrayal of God, the King of Wayne Thomas Batson’s The Door Within Trilogy. Batson avoids having the King say anything that God wouldn’t say by essentially making everything the King says a paraphrase of various biblical passages.

I think this is a good idea. To avoid a wrong portrayal or understanding of God, in the case that you actually write something your Godly character says at some point, you can simply write paraphrased statements from the bible.

Perhaps the most profound portrayal of God is Tolkien’s Iluvatar. Iluvatar may have been meant to demonstrate the all-powerful, all-knowing aspects of God’s person. It can be also be noted that there are several times when Iluvatar interacts with nature dramatically like God in the Old Testament, not visible to humanity, but at the same time performing powerful, undeniable miracles.

To cap off what I’ve said, I’ll recommend several different books to read while deciding how you would like to portray God in your story. (Please note that by portray I do not mean to cast in a certain light, I merely mean to write about Him in some way within a fictional story.)

The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis): Analyze Aslan’s behavior and speech and see how it lines up with what is said about God and Jesus in the Bible.

The Binding of the Blade Series (L. B. Graham): Analyze the Allfather’s acts of intervention and the times when he overrides the laws of nature, and compare these acts to God’s acts of intervention in the Old Testament.

The Door Within Trilogy (Wayne Thomas Batson): Analyze the way the King interacts with his subjects, and see how it lines up with God’s interaction with the saints.

The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien): Analyze Iluvatar’s behavior in the Music of the Ainur and see how it compares with what the Bible says about God’s character.

I pray God blesses you through this writing.

Your brother in Christ and fellow writer,
-Neil of Erk
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It's a bit longer than the previous draft. Thank you all for your wonderful editing, you've provoked some really deep thoughts.

These need to be separated into two paragraphs like the rest. Other than that, I really liked it (and will be commenting to let you know where I disagree, haha).

Oops, I didn't see that. I'll make sure to fix it.
Thanks for your approval. I'll get to work on formatting it in a draft on the blog now.
Update: I've submitted the article to review on the blog. I assume this was the correct next step?

Yes, that worked admirably. Thank you!

Due to an extremely tight schedule, I may not have the next draft up until late January, or even early February. I apologize in advance, and after February the articles will start coming a lot faster.

No problem.

Well, my schedule has loosened up a bit. I want to know what you all think: which is more applicable to the series, proving that the God we must include in our stories must be the God of the Bible, or proving that creation is the only plausible means of forming life? Personally, I lean towards the "creation" post, because lots of fantasy these days talks about evolution, and proving that the God must be the God of the Bible shouldn't really be an issue that has to be discussed on a Christian blog. (Although, unfortunately, people have made it a debatable issue.)

What do you all think?

Creation. Definitely. Evolution is so ingrained in the fiction nowadays that it is painful to read anything. Go for it!

I agree with Jay; do the creation one!

I will have an article on creation and fantasy within the next week! I look forward to editing it with your guys.

I apologize for my very late first draft.
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Journey of a World Builder

Part One: Fundamental Principles

Article Two: Fantasy and Evolution

It’s true: Fantasy does have something to do with the theory of evolution.
Many Fantasy novels, whether “Christian,” secular, or otherwise, loudly trumpet evolution. This article is not written in response to such books. This article is written in response to the fact that evolution has subtly crept into the territory of Christian Fiction; territory that is already un-holy.

I aim to address the source of this problem among “Christian” fantasies.
Response to the Christian Evolutionist:

Contrary to what you may believe, evolution and Christianity cannot, and must not, be reconciled. Evolution undermines the very foundation of Christianity.

If the Genesis is figurative, and does not indicate creation, then I wish to know this: At what point does Genesis become literal? Please think on this question as you read further.

If God chose to use evolution, then at what point does man take on the image of God? At what point is man no longer animal? When did man first attain a soul?

If evolution is indeed true, then at what point is marriage instituted? In fact, if evolution is true, and man was not originally male and female (because single cells are not either) then who is to say that marriage can only be between a man and a woman? From what would this law come?
Evolution also destroys the basis for modesty. At what point in the evolution of man does nudity become immodest? In fact, when was the first sin?

Evolution is driven by mutation, something that should only happen in a sinful world. This means man never sinned. Evil must have always existed in order for the apes to become a man. Sin can’t really be our fault.
Worst of all, Jesus himself would be a liar. Jesus refers to Adam and Noah, men who (according to evolution) never lived. In fact, Jesus claims to be descended from these men.
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I'm at a loss for further responses. I do intend to add some scientific stuff, but not until after a sound scriptural defense of creation.

Wow. That's very good. I really liked the question about when man takes on God's image. I believe that God did not use evolution, but I had never thought about it that way!

Two important things: you need to explain how we are to keep evolution out of our fiction, and you need to provide more scripture (skip the science for now, just give a link to AIG or something, it will make the post shorter. ).

I knew I forgot something important! That's supposed to be the whole reason I write the article!

I guess not mentioning science is wise. I've moved the arguments onto grounds most people have never heard them, and I'd hate to loose the effect.

Haha, that always happens.

This seems like a nice theological treatise, but lacks any connections to the process of world-building. Otherwise, I do like it. Your arguments are well-structured, and easy to follow.
Keep up the good work.
In Christ,
Jordan

Well, I had already explained that earlier and so it was assumed that I would add that content at a later time. In fact, the connection will be established so that I demonstrate that a properly constructed world should not contain biological, geological, or interstellar evolution.

cool

Everyone, I will finish this article for absolute-certain-sure when I return from my tournament.

Also, I'm beginning to suspect readers would appreciate it if I leave less space between posts. I'm trying to decided what the perfect time frame is. A series with daily articles is way to hard on the reader (not to mention the writer) but waiting an entire month for the next article is probably causing people to lose interest, rather than building the reader-base I'm trying for. Thoughts?

In my experience, once a week is good, if you have other people posting on there too once a week. I am wanting about 3 posts per week total from everyone. That is optimum. But for this series, one per week is its sweet spot regardless.

Part One: Fundamental Principles

Article Two: Fantasy and Evolution

It’s true: Fantasy does have something to do with the theory of evolution.
Many Fantasy novels, whether “Christian,” secular, or otherwise, loudly trumpet evolution. This article is not written in response to such books. This article is written in response to the fact that evolution has subtly crept into the territory of Christian Fiction; territory that is already un-holy.

I aim to address the source of this problem among “Christian” fantasies.
This is my response to the Christian Evolutionist:

Contrary to what you may believe, evolution and Christianity cannot, and must not, be reconciled. Evolution undermines the very foundation of Christianity.

If the Genesis is figurative, and does not indicate creation, then I wish to know this: At what point does Genesis become literal? Please think on this question as you read further.

If God chose to use evolution, then at what point does man take on the image of God? At what point is man no longer animal? When did man first attain a soul?

If evolution is indeed true, then at what point is marriage instituted? In fact, if evolution is true, and man was not originally male and female (because single cells are not either) then who is to say that marriage can only be between a man and a woman? From what would this law come?
Evolution also destroys the basis for modesty. At what point in the evolution of man does nudity become immodest? In fact, when was the first sin?

Evolution is driven by mutation, something that should only happen in a sinful world. This means man never sinned. Evil must have always existed in order for the apes to become a man. Sin can’t really be our fault.
Worst of all, Jesus himself would be a liar. Jesus refers to Adam and Noah, men who (according to evolution) never lived. In fact, Jesus claims to be descended from these men.

The fact is that there are only to acceptable options: Evolution without God or a literal interpretation of Genesis. Cap-theory and similar ideas are neither scientifically or theologically acceptable. Evolution and the Bible contradict.

For example: According to the Biblical order of events, plants are created before all celestial bodies other than earth. According to evolution, stars would have come and gone long before the first plant. The ideas do not reconcile: Either the Bible is lying about the order or the theory of evolution is.

Evolution even turns back and destroys science and logic. A chaotic expansion of the fourth dimension (know as the Big Bang) wouldn't create order. So for evolution to be true, a spiritual power must exist to guide the events of evolution. But as I just showed, the Bible and evolution contradict. So it can't be our God. But Christianity is the only logical set of spiritual doctrine. All other ideas are riddled with contradictions, and few of them provide a god powerful enough to guide evolution anyway. The gods of other ideas are all guided by evolution: an force that requires a guide.

Okay, so I guess what I said about two options isn't quite correct. The real options are:

A) The God of the Bible created the universe in a manner consistent with a literal interpretation of Genesis, or:

B) Logic and science are invalid and there is no such thing as order.

Now you tell me; which option makes more sense?

I hope I've demonstrated that evolution is not an option. If not, comment and I'll be more than happy to provide further debate.

Now to answer the question: How do we keep evolution out of our fiction?

I would like to remind you that "nothing that is, is, except by His hand."

It's simply really: God created everything. He should do the same in your stories.

However, there are things we write unknowingly that are or can give the impression of evolution. For example, Elves are often portrayed as having advanced in wisdom throughout a period of time. While such development is possible, it should also be coupled with the increase in potential evil that occurs as a result. In ratio of advancement to evil, each factor should increase by the same amount. As knowledge or technology advances, so does the potential abuse of knowledge or technology. Societies do not become progressively better. If anything, the factor of potential evil can increase at a faster rate than advancement.

There are numerous examples I could provide, but this article is already becoming long. Use what I've written here as a guide to evaluating anything in your own world/story which you suspect may be influenced by evolutionary ideology.

In closing, I would like to summarize what I've said: Evolution and the Bible are contradictory. Evolution itself is contradictory.

We must strive to eradicate evolution and it's ideas from Christian literature. If we don't, it will undermine the foundations of not just Christianity, but reason and science. This is a risk we can't take.
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Is this too long?

Because this is a blog post, I would not be overly worried about length.
While I commend you for not pointing fingers at individual works or authors, I think your introduction would be stronger if you included some examples of how evolution has crept into Christian Fantasy. I know my initial reaction to this statement is "what in the WORLD is he talking about?" I probably won't be the only one to have this reaction.

Since your whole article seems to be aimed at counteracting this, it would be much more cohesive if you take the time to describe the problem a little more thoroughly so that people can see just what you're trying to prevent. Right now it feels like you state a problem without supporting that statement and then go right on in to explaining the solution. I honestly felt terribly confused trying to understand why you wrote an article about Christianity vs. Evolution in Christian Fantasy when I have never really seen evidence of this problem.

Yes, such an explanation would make the article longer, but it would be well worth the strength that it adds to your argument.
Other than that, good job.

In Christ,
Jordan

I agree with Mr. Squishy (who needs to change his username again, seriously, haha). Make it longer, with more concrete examples. Those are crucial. It might be good to split this one into two posts, actually, if you are worried about the length: one talking about creation vs. evolution, and the second talking about how they effect fantasy.

But in any case focus on the effects of your worldview on fantasy.

Oh, you might want to spell Cap-theory with a G as well.

I spelled with a 'c'? What in the world was wrong with me?!

I'll take what you guys said into account in the next draft.

And Mr. Squishy, I'm with Emeth: there is a serious need for you to change your username. Your username leads to hysterical tendencies after repeated exposure.

I've had several ideas since I last posted a draft:

1. I've finally got some time on my hands, so I'm planning on writing ahead of the posting schedule for the series, so that I have a cushion between myself and each deadline.

2. Because I'm going to be writing a serial fiction to accompany each article, I think it would be good to stagger the postings like this: JOAWB on week, then the serial the next week, then JOAWB the week after that, etc.

3. I'm thinking that it may be good to drop this topic. Because this isn't really a prevalent problem in fantasy, it may be best to save this idea for the biology section. Instead, I have have a few other ideas.

A. The nature of good and evil. We've encountered this problem (indirectly) quite a few times on HW. Plus, mysticism seems to pervade fantasy in general, and Christians seem to be growing more open to it. (The Force, for example.) But, I also want an article explaining why spiritual laws of this world would carry over to other worlds, and going into why some would, and why some wouldn't. (Murder, for example, would continue to be sinful, but dietary laws might change.)

B. After that, I want things to stay open so that I can address anything that may come up as I go through the steps in the process. I've decided to use Jay's fractaling process, with some minor changes, mostly just trivial stuff.

What think'st thou?

I like it! Especially if that means there will be a post a week coming from you.

I have more time now, so don't worry, there will be a post a week. So glad summer finally got here.

Awesome! Now we just need more people doing the same!

Summer is soon for me, too. So I will finish my article (believe it or not) soon. I promise! I'm also developing a similar system for creatures. Perhaps I could post that when it's done.

May try and get my one of my posts in soon. But warning you right now that if I haven't submitted anything by next Wednesday, then it will be mid-July before I get anything submitted. Mission Project cuts a big chunk out of my summer.
Neil-Jay has a fractalling system for world-building? This I MUST see! I've been waiting for him to come up with one.

He's had it for a while.

Unfortunately, I can't give you the link, I only have certain permissions in Jay's files on the host site. I think you'll have to ask Jay. (It's cool, and huge, and daunting, and incredibly helpful.)

Well I have the mind map of fractalling systems, which ends up equating to a map of the development of a world. Then I have a mind map for testing to see how developed your world is. Then I have an actual world-building fractalling system. Methinks it is on my blog somewhere....

Hm...will have to snoop around and see if I can find it

Here is a piece of it. http://siremethmimetes.wordpress.com/20 ... ng-system/

I think you will need to get a bubbl.us account so I can share the full thing with you.

Already have one. It's jormaster. And I think we have officially gotten off topic

Correct. Back on topic!

Okay, here's the plan:

I'll start writing the next three JoaWB articles right away.

1. The Nature of Evil

2. The Nature of Good

3. The Relationship of Good and Evil

Yes, there's a reason evil comes first.

I'll try to get the first drafts done before I leave on the 14th. (Or 13th.)

When I return (the 24th), I'll quickly complete those drafts and work on four serial fiction stories. Then, I'll create a follow up monologue (monologue: my second favorite pass-time) for "The God Factor".

Once that is done, they will be posted in this order:

JoaWB and Shadows of Night Season One:

"The God Factor: Follow Up" ~ Week One, JoaWB

"Dark Mechanism: The Hideous Darkness" ~ Week Two, Shadows of Night Season One

"The Nature of Evil" ~ Week Three

"Dark Mechanism: That Hideous Strength" ~ Week Four

"The Nature of Good" Week Five

"Dark Mechanism: That Glorious Sacrifice" ~ Week Six

"The Relationship of Good and Evil" ~ Week Seven

"Dark Mechanism: That Glorious Victory" ~ Week Eight

During that time, I'll have been writing the next articles and serials. But, at some point, I will need a break. Hence "Season One".

Sound like a plan, Sam? (It's a pun.)

That sounds jolly good. (A pun.)

Hey, you're Irish. Not British. You should be calling me "boyo" or something.

Here's the draft for number two:
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There is so much wrong in the world. So many bad people, doing bad things. We’ve all seen it.

But, what do we call it?

Evil.

So, what is evil?

No, I’m not asking you what things are evil, I’m asking what evil itself is. What is the nature of evil? What is evil’s substance, and what is evil’s essence? (Think of substance as a quantitive idea, and essence as a qualitive idea.)

In terms of substance, or in material terms, evil is a negative force in the world. But, substance is not what something is, but “only what it is made out of”. So what is the essence, the actual core, if you will, of evil?

The essence of evil is nothing. Literally speaking, evil is absence. Absence of what? Absence of good.

Now, how did I come at that conclusion?

Briefly put, let’s analogize good with light. What does that make evil? Darkness. So, what is darkness?

It is the absence of light. So, on simply examination, evil is the absence of good!

Does that prevent evil from affecting the world? Not any more than the absence of matter or light affects the world.

This metaphor is useful for explaining so many things. Evil seems so strong, but it will destroy itself. Why? Because evil, of course, wants to completely eliminate the good in something. But by doing so, it robs that something of both its meaning, and of the very thing that defines evil. This process destroys whatever evil corrupts, which prevents it from corrupting more things.

Thus, evil looses inertia over time. Soon, God will deal it a death blow and fill the whole universe with light.

This description also provides a refutation of many mystical philosophies that pervade fiction, and even make their way into the fringe movements of the “evangelical” church.

Taoism, for example, is the teaching that evil and good are counter-opposed forces, equal in strength, that must be equal balanced, and give the world meaning. This teaching reduces good and evil to forces, and makes both equally positive and equally negative. This teaching is clearly refuted by the light-dark illustration.

However, I haven’t explained what good is. So, in my next installment, I’ll explain the nature of good, using scripture to back up my view.
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How's that?

A good draft! Structure is good. Just some spellin here and there.

"Spellin" is the bane of my writin'.

Article Three: The Nature of Good

We’ve addressed the nature of evil. But answering that question raised another questions, what is good?

Now, note, I’m not asking “what things are good”. That’s a question about the substance of good. I’m dealing with the essence of good. I don’t want to know what’s good; I want to know what good is.

My contention is that good is a manifestation of God’s attributes. It’s not something He created; it’s just what we call a part of Him. Just as logic is not His creation, but just what we call His pattern of thought.

Okay, that’s simple enough, but I’ve got to prove it. Let’s use some logic to do that.

If God created good, then what do we define good and evil by? Saying that “good” was “good” because God created it to be inherently “good” is like saying I am me because God made me like the way I am.

It’s circular.

Circular isn’t going anywhere.

So, if we’re going to stick with a Biblical understanding of why good is good and evil is evil, we’ve got to have another explanation for the source and nature of good.

Saying that good is simply what we call the way God acts lines up very well with scripture.

Note: scripture never tells us to be good. It tells us to reflect Christ. We automatically assume this is good: because Christ acts good. Or rather, good is the way Christ acts. When we say that something is good, we are really just relating it to an attribute of God.

It’s simple. It makes sense. And it increases my appreciation of God, every time I think about it.

Looks pretty good, but it seems rather like a 'stub'. Could you expand it a bit with maybe a few verses and some practical examples of how that affects how we ought to write fantasy?

Sure. I'll have that done later today.