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An [[Optimist|optimist]] is one who looks at a glass of water that is half-full and half-empty, and focuses on how it is half-full.
An [[Optimist|optimist]] is one who looks at a glass of water that is half-full and half-empty, and focuses on how it is half-full.
[[Christianity|Christian]] theologians commonly declare that the world was the best of all possible worlds, as it was created by [[God]]. Therefore, even what appears to many as bad is actually part of God's perfect plan. For example, adversity improves Christian character.
[[Image:Leibniz.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Gottfried Leibniz]] ]]
[[Gottfried Leibniz|Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz]] (1646-1716) was a German, Christian philosopher who was born into a pious [[Lutheran]] family close to the end of the Thirty Years’ War, which had laid [[Germany]] in ruins.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/best-of-all-possible-worlds Best of all possible worlds], Encyclopedia Britannica</ref>
Encyclopedia Britannica's article ''Best of all possible worlds'' states:
{{Cquote|Best of all possible worlds, in the philosophy of the early modern philosopher [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz] (1646–1716), the thesis that the existing world is the best world that God could have created.
Leibniz’s argument for the doctrine of the best of all possible worlds, now commonly called Leibnizian optimism, is presented in its fullest form in his work Théodicée (1710; [[Theodicy]]), which was devoted to defending the justness of God..
In rough outline, the argument proceeds as follows:
'''1.''' God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent;
'''2.''' God created the existing world;
'''3.''' God could have created a different world or none at all (i.e., there are other possible worlds);
'''4.''' Because God is omnipotent and omniscient, he knew which possible world was the best and was able to create it, and, because he is omnibenevolent, he chose to create that world;
'''5.''' Therefore, the existing world, the one that God created, is the best of all possible worlds.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/best-of-all-possible-worlds Best of all possible worlds], Encyclopedia Britannica</ref>}}
== Low self-motivation and the spiritual strength to turn things around. The limitations of self-motivation ==
== Low self-motivation and the spiritual strength to turn things around. The limitations of self-motivation ==