Can God be free?

Abstract

The major conception of God in the West is that he necessarily exists and is necessarily all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good. Can God, so conceived, be free with respect to the possible world he selects to create? I argue that if there is a best creatable world, God is not free to create any world other than the best world. I also argue that if for every creatable world there is a better creatable world, it cannot be that God exists and is the creator of a world.