Free Will is a sign if God's inescapable weakness

[SteveII]

5. This then has a surprising consequence; why would God need to give humans the chance to learn by free will, if God was smart enough to make perfect beings without the need to learn by trial and error? It implies that if free will is God given, God is non omniscient/non omnipotent in a similar way to how machine learning researchers are non omniscient, and therefore make smart software that need to learn by trial/error to get better at tasks!!!

***your font, your bold

First, where did you get that God attempted to make a perfect being? Do you realize that a perfect being would have to have perfect knowledge? Even if we took this to mean that a human would have at least all the appropriate knowledge it is capable of having, that means that no one could ever have been a child, no one would ever have to learn anything, there would be no science. Your whole argument seems to be:

1. God's goal was to make perfect humans with free will
2. A perfect human would have perfect knowledge
3. Humans do not have perfect knowledge
4. Therefore God is not omniscient/omnipotent

• I think there are at least two problems with #1, First, you have not demonstrated how a biologically reproducing race could have perfect knowledge; and second, that was not God's goal
  
• #2 a perfect human may very well not have perfect knowledge because knowledge (especially as your related to the "machine learning") is only a small part of what it means to be human. What about childhood innocence, pleasure, experiences, learning for the sake of learning, relationships, self-sacrifice, fulfillment, love, etc.?
  
• #1 and #2 have defeaters so the conclusion in #4 is not supported. 
  

Second, your entire underlying assumption is probably faulty. Perhaps learning by trial and error is better than being "programmed".

---

I actually got my theist friend so riled up, that she ended up saying her God was both omniscient/omnipotent, and limited. (I've never heard her say that God was limited before... It was a contradiction that was easy for her to see, although she didn't admit it...)

I think that is exactly what we have when we discuss free will. God is omniscient, omnipotent, and limited. Free will entails that God has subordinated control of some things. Look at that, I wasn't even riled when I said it. Don't confuse the fact that a Christian might not have an answer with there not being an answer.