Best World for Whom?
The best for everybody. But how could everyone ever agree on the best world. We can't even agree on ice cream flavors. Yes, and isn't that why Baskin Robbins has 56 flavors? The point is that this is a big world. There is a lot of variety and a lot of diversity. And if you don't like things right now, then maybe you can wait around a few years, or, even better, get to work now on your personal vision. That is more or less what I'm doing.
Are we to understand that there has never been needless suffering or injustice? I will turn that question around. Is it not possible to imagine that all the suffering and injustice in the world could be healed or made right, given certain metaphysical conditions and theological and eschatological assumptions. Simply assume then that those conditions and assumptions are already in place.
Clearly the best possible world is a highly participatory one. Our destiny is in our own hands, with God here mainly to provide cosmic oversight and guidance, and some very basic guarantees.
How do we know that this is not just the second best world? How do we know that we are not subservient to some other, numero uno world? This will only become obvious in the light of the unfolding of the eschaton. It is my job here to do as much of that unfolding as is possible. In the meantime, the fact that this world is the center of spiritual gravity for the cosmos underlies the entire prophetic tradition. Of course, that tradition could be bogus, and many suppose it is. But that is what we are here to find out, isn't it?
5/20/02