The best of all possible worlds?

[Xeno.of.athens]

here we are in Christian Forums in 2025, centuries have gone by, Christianity has been The major religion of The West for two thousand years and I wonder if we're living in The best of all possible worlds?

if we're not then why? if we are how do we explain all the messy and terrible stuff that goes on in the world?

the reason that I wonder if it's The best of all possible worlds is that it doesn't seem likely that God would have made a sub optimal world and even with sin being present, and demons being present, an all manner of natural disaster being present, could The world be anything but the best of all possible worlds since it is the work of God's hands? Or is God a slip shod workman producing substandard products?

 

[Bob Crowley]

Apparently it was Gottfried Leibniz who coined the term "the best of all possible worlds" in his "Essays of Theodicy etc." Leibniz was also a central figure in the development of Calculus in mathematics and his dy/dx symbolism superseded that of Isaac Newton.

Best of all possible worlds - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: Le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German polymath and Enlightenment philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil),[1] more commonly known simply as the Theodicy. The claim that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds is the central argument in Leibniz's theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil.[1]

... In Leibniz's works, the argument about the best of all possible worlds appears in the context of his theodicy, a word that he coined by combining the Greek words Theos, 'God', and dikē, 'justice'.[2] Its object was to solve the problem of evil, that is, to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of a perfectly good, all-powerful and all-knowing God, who would seem required to prevent it; as such, the name comes from Leibniz's conceiving of the project as the vindication of God's justice, namely against the charges of injustice brought against him by such evils.[2] Proving that this is the best of all possible worlds would dispel such charges by showing that, no matter how it may intuitively appear to us from our limited point of view, any other world – such as, namely, one without the evils which trouble our lives – would, in fact, have been worse than the current one, all things considered.

Apparently he also coined the term Theodicy which is the topic dealing with the problem of evil.

I think it is odds on that this is the best resourced of all worlds in this universe. Apart from the fact the physical constants are just the right mix to maintain this universe, we have the right chemicals for life, a thin but stable atmosphere, a Van Allen belt which shields us from Gamma rays, fossil fuels laid down in preparation to give industrial man a leg up when the time came; uranium so we could split the atom, large amounts of accessible iron and aluminium that we can use for construction of machinery, silicon for electronics, oceans to maintain a fairly steady temperature, a moon which stablilises our orbit, our position in the Milky Way so we are in a fairly dust free part which enables us to peer out into the universe and so on.

If we wreck this planet, I very much doubt that we're going to find another one anything like it no matter how technically advanced our civilisation might become. In that respect I think this will prove to be the "best (resourced) of all possible worlds" in this universe.

The problem of evil is harder to justify as one facet of "the best of all possible worlds".

 

[Clare73]

Apparently it was Gottfried Leibniz who coined the term "the best of all possible worlds" in his "Essays of Theodicy etc." Leibniz was also a central figure in the development of Calculus in mathematics and his dy/dx symbolism superseded that of Isaac Newton.

Best of all possible worlds - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: Le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German polymath and Enlightenment philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil),[1] more commonly known simply as the Theodicy. The claim that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds is the central argument in Leibniz's theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil.[1]

... In Leibniz's works, the argument about the best of all possible worlds appears in the context of his theodicy, a word that he coined by combining the Greek words Theos, 'God', and dikē, 'justice'.[2] Its object was to solve the problem of evil, that is, to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of a perfectly good, all-powerful and all-knowing God, who would seem required to prevent it; as such, the name comes from Leibniz's conceiving of the project as the vindication of God's justice, namely against the charges of injustice brought against him by such evils.[2] Proving that this is the best of all possible worlds would dispel such charges by showing that, no matter how it may intuitively appear to us from our limited point of view, any other world – such as, namely, one without the evils which trouble our lives – would, in fact, have been worse than the current one, all things considered.

Apparently he also coined the term Theodicy which is the topic dealing with the problem of evil.
I think it is odds on that this is the best resourced of all worlds in this universe. Apart from the fact the physical constants are just the right mix to maintain this universe, we have the right chemicals for life, a thin but stable atmosphere, a Van Allen belt which shields us from Gamma rays, fossil fuels laid down in preparation to give industrial man a leg up when the time came; uranium so we could split the atom, large amounts of accessible iron and aluminium that we can use for construction of machinery, silicon for electronics, oceans to maintain a fairly steady temperature, a moon which stablilises our orbit, our position in the Milky Way so we are in a fairly dust free part which enables us to peer out into the universe and so on.

If we wreck this planet, I very much doubt that we're going to find another one anything like it no matter how technically advanced our civilisation might become. In that respect I think this will prove to be the "best (resourced) of all possible worlds" in this universe.
The problem of evil is harder to justify as one facet of "the best of all possible worlds".

The problem of evil is the heart of God's plan to show forth his glory through the glory of the Son.