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Article: The worst of all possible worlds.(faith and reason)
- Article from:
- Catholic Insight
- Article date:
- June 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Catholic Insight. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sometimes rationalists believe we live in the best of all possible worlds. Ironically, they end up in making it the worst of all possible worlds, a world without Christ.
Editor
Non-believers assume that people have recourse to Christ only when they have needs. Christ becomes a sort of caretaker who sweeps up our pain, swiftly disappearing afterwards until we call him back like some English butler. In this sense, Christ is not the Redeemer. He is assumed to be a paramedic. From where does such an idea originate? One source is the German philosopher G.W. Leibniz, who introduced the notion that we live in "the best of all possible worlds."
In 1710 ...