the problem of pain

'If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.' This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form...

His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it', you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words 'God can'.

It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

if God is omnibenevolent (all-good), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful), then why doesn't He create a world in which there is no sin, strife and suffering?

in the first place, this is not a valid objection to the existence of God. if you blame God for creating a world in which there is sin, strife and suffering, then you have to grant that He exists. if you don't grant that He exists, then you cannot blame Him for creating a world in which there is sin, strife and suffering.

but moving on - the more i think about it, the more i think Leibniz's solution to the problem of evil is philosophically and theologically sound. in short, God does not create a better world because there isn't one.

a1. only God is uncreated.
a2. the world is not uncreated.
a3. therefore, the world is not like God.

b1. only God is perfect.
b2. the world is not like God.
b3. therefore, the world is not perfect.

in other words,

c1. if the world is perfect, then it would be like God.
c2. if the world is like God, then it would be uncreated.
c3. the world is not uncreated.
c4. therefore, the world is not like God.
c5. therefore, the world is not perfect.