I think that Voltaire has a point in making fun of the Christian Strawman’s worldview that “this is the best of all possible worlds.” Because it sure does not seem best!

But the truer, non-strawman’s take is that this is the best of all possible fallen worlds, the best of all possible sin-filled worlds. (Cause, duh, the best possible world was the one in which A&E did not fall. Which, in the Gen text, is never told as if it had to happen.)

So, to put it even more succinctly, this is the best of all possible broken worlds.

Or, this is the best of all possible not-best worlds.

In other words, this is the doctrine of prevenient grace: that, out of sheer grace, God keeps the world from it’s repeated attempts to kill itself.

Not that the world is stopped from trying to kill itself. It’s that God keeps it from succeding.