Theodicy, or the Justice of God.

The term "theodicy", as is fairly well-known, was coined by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, from the Greek theos, God, dikē, justice, who tried to defend God on the basis that "all was for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds", an argument for which he was justly excoriated by Voltaire in his satire, Candide. Out of the entire set, or space, of possible worlds, which must be infinite in extent, is there, or are there, no other or others even marginally better than this one, judged by whatever criteria?

The French novelist Stendhal argued that "God's only excuse is that he does not exist" (La seule excuse de Dieu c'est n'existe-pas). Suppose we turn that round and say, rather, that he exists, therefore he has no excuse? (Dieu existe, donc il n'a aucune excuse.)

Let us begin by asserting that God exists, and accept that he is eternal, infinite, immortal and indestructible. Let us also accept the traditional (and orthodox) picture of God as the creator of the universe, as both transcendent and immanent, personal, rational, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and endowed with foreknowledge of all future events, everywhere in the universe.

God's omniscience entails that he knows everything that has happened in the universe, and everything that is happening in it.

With regard to his foreknowledge, this is conditional, to the extent that God knows that x will happen, unless he intervenes to prevent it from happening, and causes y to occur instead.

Consequently, God is responsible for everything that has ever happened, is happening, or will ever happen in the universe, because all events were future events at some time, or are still future events. This conclusion is a logically necessary one, and entails that there is no such thing as 'free will', that determinism and pre-determinism are true, and that God is not omnibenevolent. Indeed, he is uniquely to blame for all the evil, pain and suffering in the world, and has been since the dawn of Time. There was no Fall of the Angels, anymore than there was a Fall of humanity, because God and Satan are one and the same being. He cannot be called the "Demiurge", because there is no "perfect deity" to whom to appeal. Prayers to him are utterly futile, and the religions devoted to his cult vacuous.