objection i
Whoever does not choose the best course is lacking either in power, or knowledge, or goodness.
God did not choose the best course in creating this world.
Therefore God was lacking in power, or knowledge, or goodness.
answer
I deny the minor, that is to say, the second premiss of this syllogism, and the opponent proves it by this
prosyllogism
Whoever makes things in which there is evil, and which could have been made without any evil, or need not have been made at all, does not choose the best course.
God made a world wherein there is evil; a world, I say, which could have been made without any evil or which need not have been made at all.