Creation, Actualization and God's Choice among Possible Worlds

Abstract

God is traditionally understood to be a perfect being who is the creator and sustainer of all that is. God's creative and sustaining activity is often thought to involve choosing a possible world for actualization. It is generally said that either there is (a) exactly one best of all possible worlds, or there are (b) infinitely many increasingly better worlds, or else there are (c) infinitely many unsurpassable worlds within God's power to actualize. On each view, critics have offered arguments for atheism that turn on God's choice of a world. In what follows, I first discuss some background issues, and I then survey the contemporary literature on these arguments.

Novelty genesis: the mechanism of forming the new from the old

“…These patterns are integrated into one conceptual model of novelty genesis or, for simplicity, the NG model. This analysis rests outside creationism-the theological interpretation of creation as an act of God (Kraay, 2008). My goal is to understand novelty (or creation) when regarded as an act within the physical world.…”

Shoring up divine simplicity against modal collapse: a powers account

“…1.Use of the phrase ‘modal collapse’ to describe the consequences of the doctrine of divine simplicity comes from Mullins (2013). Mullins himself draws the phrase from Kraay (2008) and (2011), though Kraay considers modal collapse in the context of God's freedom or constraint to create a best possible world.…”

Modalidade e o melhor dos mundos possíveis: Leibniz, Aquino, e a discussão contemporânea

“…Strickland parte das próprias declarações de Leibniz de que o melhor dos mundos possíveis é "aquele 24 A ideia Leibniziana de que este é o melhor dos mundos possíveis é concebida como uma resposta para o problema do mal (isto é, da suposta dificuldade que a existência de mal no mundo colocaria para a existência de um ser onipotente, onisciente e onibenevolente) em seu livro Teodiceia. 25 Ver, por exemplo, BLUMMENFELD, 1975;HASKER, 1984;GROVER, 1988;GROVER, 1998;GROVER, 1999;HOWARD-SNYDER, 1994;HOWARD-SNYDER, 1996;GROVER, 2004;KRAAY, 2007;KRAAY, 2008;LANGTRY, 2008. 26 Ver, por exemplo, KRAAY, 2008.…”

“…25 Ver, por exemplo, BLUMMENFELD, 1975;HASKER, 1984;GROVER, 1988;GROVER, 1998;GROVER, 1999;HOWARD-SNYDER, 1994;HOWARD-SNYDER, 1996;GROVER, 2004;KRAAY, 2007;KRAAY, 2008;LANGTRY, 2008. 26 Ver, por exemplo, KRAAY, 2008. 27 PLANTINGA, 1974.…”