Explain what is meant by the claim that 'any world created by God is the best of all possible worlds' (30 marks)

It can be argued that 'any world created by God is the best of all possible worlds'. This would claim that the world that we live in is the best it could be. God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, therefore he has the power and love to create out world to the best of his ability - the best there is.

 17th century philosopher Gottfried Leibniz presented this idea in his work Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil. He argues that God has an idea, or knows of infinite universes. God has a choice to make as only one of these can exist. All of God's choices are made under the principle of sufficient reason (all things occur for a specific reason), and God is good, therefore, all of God's choices will be the best possible, or most perfect decisions. Leibniz puts together these two ideas an concludes that as a omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient being, God would only create/choose a world that is the best it could possibly be.

 Many people argue that this world couldn't be the best possible one with the existence of evil and suffering. Leibniz contradicts this argument by saying that we need evil and suffering to grow and produce character, primarily courage. Leibniz argues that without evil and suffering we would not have courage and therefore would not know what it is to help others and stand up against thing we know as being wrong.

 Further support of this argument comes from the interpretation of Genesis from Hebrew. In Hebrew the word 'Tam' is used many times to describe God's creation (in the English translation the word is 'good'). One translation of the word 'Tam' is perfect or unblemished, this would imply that there is no more that can be done to the world as God has made it as good as it can be.

PS I'M REALLY SORRY MISS I COULDN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE TO WRITE!!!