Theodicy and kicking the can

[RobbyPants]

Why not just make Earthly life “never be bad”? Because removing the potential for moral evils simultaneously removes the potential for moral goods like love. For example, learning to harness the power of fire is a tremendous benefit, but the same power can be misused, as in the case of arson, or handled carelessly, as in the case of grease fires from cooking.

Your current notion of love revolves around comparing it to other states. That isn't to say that it cannot exist without those other negatives.

Are you saying that God is incapable of creating creatures capable of knowing love without also knowing suffering/evil? This notion can still be summed up with a can't vs won't proposition. Either God cannot create such beings (why?), or he chooses not to, making these moral evils unnecessary.

Then how can Heaven be a “never bad” place? Because Heaven is a state of being only attained by a process of moral development*, either by experience or instruction.

But, why can't God just create us with that level of development? He supposedly created adults in Eden, despite the fact that every human thereafter must be born as an infant. Is it impossible for God to create a human with this level of development?

Again, this is a can't vs won't proposition. Either God cannot create people this way (why?), or he chooses not to, and "the journey" is arbitrary.

How someone feels about their role in loving. For example, suppose someone was under the influence of a ‘love potion’ or some form of mind control, such that they had no say over the feelings of affection and duty towards another. Can anyone claim that such a person truly loved the object of their love. Now replace the love potion with the initial conditions of the universe. I don’t see much of a difference.

Given free will, someone has the potential choose to love some and not others. Anyone can see that the absence of love introduces the potential for relationships based on indifference or malice. Which potentials, for good or ill, are actualized depends completely on the free agent.

If heaven is a state achieved due to moral development, and people "always" do the right thing, then it seems you've ended up with a place where everyone has voluntarily taken the love potion.