The best of all Possible Worlds - the created world

The creation of the world by God - the best of all possible worlds.

God is seen as perfect, it seems reasonable to suppose that he would have created a perfect world, but if God is concieved as total perfection then we have to ask how he is related to the universe as we understand it (imperfect and full of evil and suffering)

One way of understanding how God created the world was Ex Deo which translates to out of his very being, everything exists was created from God by God.

Plato - the universe was shaped, not created, in such a way that it conforms to the Form of the Good but it is never perfect.

Aristotle (Plato's pupil) - Forms are rejected and need to be embodied in matter to be real. He saw the need for an eternal and unchanging substance - the best of all being which is itself the cause of all change in the unvierse. This God never does anything but simply changes things by being there.

THEY BOTH AGREE that God is not a creator and they do not expaln how matter exists and this alone explains why the world is not as good as it might be. 

The Old Testament

God is the absoloute creator. The creation story (Genesis 1-2) show that each asepct of creation is 'good' - TAM - and created and belongs to God. 

Augustine - understood God as the one perfect creator who created a good universe BECAUSE God is good by definition and so any unvierse he creates must reflect his goodness. 

God is rational and creates what is good BUT this does not fit in with our perception of the universe. The world is not perfect and contains much evil and suffering. 

God the sustainer of the world

Ex Deo - God shares our existance through our expereinces of it. As we grow, as we develop, so does God; as we sufer, so does God. This gives an explanation for the pain and suffering in the created world as people are responsible for their action and no one, not even God, causes people to act as they do. 

GODS SUSTAINING ROLE IS PERSUASIVE RATHER THAN COERCIVE. 

Ex Nihilo - show…