The Worst of All Possible Worlds

[Gary Childress]

The world is habitable and conducive to human living. Unfortunately, it's also designed to maximize the amount of despair one can have during that time and make happiness impossible to achieve. I therefore conclude that God is not benevolent to human beings.

[Impenitent]

freedom is a bitch...

-Imp

[Gary Childress]

freedom is a bitch...

-Imp

Suffering is not necessary for there to be freedom.

[Greatest I am]

freedom is a bitch...

-Imp

We have less of that than we think.

Not surprising though, as we have knowingly and wisely chosen Liberty over freedom.

[Greatest I am]

The world is habitable and conducive to human living. Unfortunately, it's also designed to maximize the amount of despair one can have during that time and make happiness impossible to achieve. I therefore conclude that God is not benevolent to human beings.

The world is where we compete for life like all living entities.

This is demonstrably the best of all possible worlds, because, as we compete, we lead with cooperation, the love side of us, and not the compete side, which causes losers.

You are right in that we ultimately create a lot of despair via sins, crimes and hurtful stupidities, but for good reasons. Progress.

You have to try to see it from the old sin concept.

"Sin: The Path to Excellence"
Sin has long been associated with moral failure, but what if we reframe it? I see sin as something essential to human growth—a necessary part of striving for excellence.
At its core, sin simply means “missing the mark.” It’s not about wickedness but about falling short of an ideal. Christianity and even Gnostic traditions acknowledge this idea in different ways. The concept of felix culpa—the “happy fault”—suggests that sin is necessary for God’s plan. Whether or not one believes in the supernatural, the wisdom of this idea is clear: missing the mark is a natural part of aiming for something greater.
To evolve, both as individuals and as a species, we must take risks and inevitably fall short. This process—of setting goals, failing, and trying again—is what drives progress. Every moment of “sin” is evidence that we’re pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zones and striving toward our best possible selves. This is what we do, consciously or unconsciously, at every point in our lives.
Even competition, often seen as divisive, is tied to this idea. Competition highlights our shortcomings, creating a contrast between where we are and where we want to be. It creates leaders, innovators, and excellence by encouraging us to improve. Of course, competition produces losers, and those losses can feel like failures or even evoke the idea of "evil." But in truth, every loss is an opportunity—a moment to learn, adapt, and grow stronger.
This is why I celebrate sin—not as a call to moral failure but as an embrace of imperfection and growth. Without sin, without missing the mark, we would have no benchmarks for greatness. There would be no leaders to inspire us, no innovators to challenge us, and no progress to drive humanity forward.
I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I see wisdom in the way ancient scribes wove this idea into their teachings. Sin, in its truest sense, is not something to avoid but something to engage with thoughtfully. It is the evidence of our striving, our courage to try, and our commitment to evolve.
So, I invite you: aim high. Take your shot. Miss the mark. Become a sinner in the best way possible. In doing so, you’ll not only create a better version of yourself but also contribute to the collective excellence of humanity.

[Greatest I am]

The world is habitable and conducive to human living. Unfortunately, it's also designed to maximize the amount of despair one can have during that time and make happiness impossible to achieve. I therefore conclude that God is not benevolent to human beings.

Living in a dualistic universe and reality, Gnostic thinking speaks to the evolving perfection of reality and not the imperfection most see.

See if the following makes sense to you

Let me speak to the lie of Gnostic Christians hating matter.
I wrote this to refute the false notion that Gnostic Christians do not like matter and reality that the inquisitors propagated to justify their many murders of my religion’s originators.
The Gnostic Christian reality.
Gnostic Christian Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all.
[And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

"If those who attract you say, 'See, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you.

If they say to you, 'It is under the earth,' then the fish of the sea will precede you.

Rather, the Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you.

[Those who] become acquainted with [themselves] will find it; [and when you] become acquainted with yourselves, [you will understand that] it is you who are the sons of the living Father.

But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

As you can see from that quote, if we see God's kingdom all around us and inside of us, we cannot think that the world is anything but evolving perfection. Most just don't see it and live in poverty. Let me try to make you see the world the way I do.

Here is a mind exercise. Tell me what you see when you look around. The best that can possibly be, given our past history, or an ugly and imperfect world?

Candide.
"It is demonstrable that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end.”

That means that we live in the best of all possible worlds, because it is the only possible world, given all the conditions at hand and the history that got us here. That is an irrefutable statement given entropy and the anthropic principle.

[promethean75]

He who leaps across the precipice... he who steals pearls from the ashes. Ride si sapis

[phyllo]

The world is habitable and conducive to human living. Unfortunately, it's also designed to maximize the amount of despair one can have during that time and make happiness impossible to achieve. I therefore conclude that God is not benevolent to human beings.

I can think of many worlds which are worse than this one.

[Gary Childress]

The world is habitable and conducive to human living. Unfortunately, it's also designed to maximize the amount of despair one can have during that time and make happiness impossible to achieve. I therefore conclude that God is not benevolent to human beings.

I can think of many worlds which are worse than this one.

Such as?

[phyllo]

In this world, the majority of people are not sick, not starving, not enslaved, not being tortured ...

Every imagined world where more people are suffering is worse than this world.

It could be much, much worse.

Be grateful for the good that there is.

[MikeNovack]

There do exist dualistic human belief systems where it's not good god/bad god but two brother creators, one competent and the other far less so. But the competent brother doesn't hog all the creation, lets his brother have turns. So its not good creation and bad creation but good creation and screwed up bits. I think such cultures are saying "sharing more important than getting everything right" and using that as the "why does some of creation seem ill designed".

[Walker]

AI tells us that the odds of randomly forming a protein from a random sequence of amino acids is 1 in 10^74 to 1 in 10^164.

Those are long odds considering there are 10^80 atoms in the known universe.

In other words, the earth could be the only place in the universe where human life exists.
(The Supreme Ordering Principle of the Universe sequenced the acids.)

In other words, the earth could be The Garden of Eden in a universe otherwise devoid of intelligent life.

The Only Possible World.

The gift of awareness is a great, benevolent gift for the experiencing of The Voyage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fryGyq ... rt_radio=1

[Walker]

So, I invite you: aim high. Take your shot. Miss the mark. Become a sinner in the best way possible. In doing so, you’ll not only create a better version of yourself but also contribute to the collective excellence of humanity.

“You see father, by creating a little destruction, I’m in fact encouraging life.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Bn3OwgOyU

[Gary Childress]

In this world, the majority of people are not sick, not starving, not enslaved, not being tortured ...

Every imagined world where more people are suffering is worse than this world.

It could be much, much worse.

Be grateful for the good that there is.

So am I to be grateful that only some inordinately suffer in this world? I should be thankful that I'm not as bad off as they are? Wouldn't it be a better world if no one suffered at all? And is it not the case that the inordinate suffering of some is used to justify the lesser suffering of the majority? And who are those who don't suffer at all? Are they perhaps people who don't care at all about the suffering of others? I mean, who can have joy when there are others suffering horribly?

[phyllo]

In this world, the majority of people are not sick, not starving, not enslaved, not being tortured ...

Every imagined world where more people are suffering is worse than this world.

It could be much, much worse.

Be grateful for the good that there is.

So am I to be grateful that only some inordinately suffer in this world? I should be thankful that I'm not as bad off as they are? Wouldn't it be a better world if no one suffered at all? And is it not the case that the inordinate suffering of some is used to justify the lesser suffering of the majority? And who are those who don't suffer at all? Are they perhaps people who don't care at all about the suffering of others? I mean, who can have joy when there are others suffering horribly?

First off, you said that this is the "worst of all possible worlds" and that it's "designed to maximize despair". Clearly that is not true because one can think of worse worlds with more despair.

So am I to be grateful that only some inordinately suffer in this world? I should be thankful that I'm not as bad off as they are?

Well, yes. It would give you a more realistic evaluation of the world and your own life.

Wouldn't it be a better world if no one suffered at all?

Sure, but that's not the world that exists.

And is it not the case that the inordinate suffering of some is used to justify the lesser suffering of the majority?

How so? Who is doing this justification?

And who are those who don't suffer at all?

Probably none or very few but there are degrees of suffering. It's not black and white.

Are they perhaps people who don't care at all about the suffering of others?

Non-attachment can be the road to reduced suffering and "not caring" is a form of non-attachment, so that's possibly a partial reason.

I mean, who can have joy when there are others suffering horribly?

Denying yourself joy is not helping those who suffer.

You're just increasing your own suffering and therefore increasing the total suffering in the world.