Fundamentally I agree, and I think it sounds like we both agree with Spock. Christianity tries to get around this by distinguishing between timeless/eternal and within-time/everlasting viewpoints, among other approaches, but I think very much fails to make a good case. I do think there are a few plausible counterarguments here, none of which are standard AFAIK.
One is Scott Alexander’s Answer to Job, basically that we’re mistaken to think this is the best possible world (assuming “world” means “Earth”), because God actually created all possible net-good universes, and (due to something like entropy) most of those are going to be just-barely-net-good. That post combines it with a discussion of what the words “create” and “exist” actually might mean, in terms of identity, value, quantity, simulation, computation and how to sum utilities.
Another is dkirmani’s answer below, that for some functions and initial conditions there might not be a well-defined analytical solution to the problem of future-prediction, only a computational solution, such that even God has to simulate the whole process to do the prediction or the goodness-summation (which might be equivalent to creating minds and experiences and worlds). This one is also a plausible solution to the question of why God would create anything at all.
Fundamentally I agree, and I think it sounds like we both agree with Spock. Christianity tries to get around this by distinguishing between timeless/eternal and within-time/everlasting viewpoints, among other approaches, but I think very much fails to make a good case. I do think there are a few plausible counterarguments here, none of which are standard AFAIK.
One is Scott Alexander’s Answer to Job, basically that we’re mistaken to think this is the best possible world (assuming “world” means “Earth”), because God actually created all possible net-good universes, and (due to something like entropy) most of those are going to be just-barely-net-good. That post combines it with a discussion of what the words “create” and “exist” actually might mean, in terms of identity, value, quantity, simulation, computation and how to sum utilities.
Another is dkirmani’s answer below, that for some functions and initial conditions there might not be a well-defined analytical solution to the problem of future-prediction, only a computational solution, such that even God has to simulate the whole process to do the prediction or the goodness-summation (which might be equivalent to creating minds and experiences and worlds). This one is also a plausible solution to the question of why God would create anything at all.