Gottfried Leibniz God, Evil and the Best of All Possible Worlds Response PDF

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reading response - Prof. Kaleena Stoddard...

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Zoe Green PHIL1010-01 Gottfried Leibniz: God, Evil and the Best of All Possible Worlds 9/9/19

In the text, Leibniz grants that it was possible for God to create a world without evil. I do partially agree that it was possible for God to create a world without evil but I don’t think that this supposed world without evil would be any similar to our world today, and most likely not as advanced. In order for our civilization to have progressed over time, we had to face many challenges or evils that brought us to the good in life and help us learn and grow. Without these evils, we wouldn’t have had the tools we needed to progress or advance our society to where it is now. I do believe that, theoretically, it is possible for God to have created a world without evil in it but I don’t believe that that world would have been better than this one or that evil wouldn’t have eventually shown up in the future. Leibniz argues that a world that contains evil might still be the best of all possible worlds if the evil is accompanied by a greater good. A greater good that might accompany the existence of evil in our world would be the black lives matter movement and the progression of racial equality in our society amongst all minorities that came from slavery and racism in the past. Although these acts were undoubtedly, severely evil, a greater good came out of them that caused a great balance of equality in our world today that still continues to progress and get better. In order to defend the existence of God in the face of evil, it is necessary to proclaim that this world is the best of all possible worlds as Leibniz does. This is because it is seen that since God is the highest, all-knowing being in our universe, God can only choose the best in what he does. God chose to create this world in a very specific way that is

different from all the other possible worlds he could’ve created with less evil or without evil completely. In this world he created, there is a significant amount of evil in it regardless of the other possibilities of what could’ve been. Therefore, God’s decision to create this world with evil in it must mean that this is the best of all possible worlds, thus defending the existence of God in the face of evil....