There's actually a pretty well-known thought experiment which demonstrate that God could create a world free from evil, without violating anyone's free will. Consider:
You have a planet with a stable population of 1000 individuals. Half of them will always freely choose evil acts, half will always freely choose good acts. Each day, God removes from this world one of the evil people. In 500 days, there will be no one left but people who freely choose good 100% of the time.
Going forward, God omnisciently knows which children born on this world will be good and which will be evil. God simply prevents the conception of those who will be evil. The population of the world will always consist of people who choose to never commit an evil act. The result is a world free from evil in which no one's free will has been violated.
Thus, assuming that God prefers good acts to evil ones, the free will defense doesn't get God of the hook. Since God COULD prevent moral evil simply by permitting only the existence of those people whom God knows beforehand will never, ever commit an evil act, God is responsible for moral evil. Remember, God isn't constraining people to act in a good manner, he isn't mucking about with free will - he is simply not allowing evil acts to be performed by making sure that people who perform them don't exist.
One could make a similar argument that God is equally culpable for natural evil.
Boru
You have a planet with a stable population of 1000 individuals. Half of them will always freely choose evil acts, half will always freely choose good acts. Each day, God removes from this world one of the evil people. In 500 days, there will be no one left but people who freely choose good 100% of the time.
Going forward, God omnisciently knows which children born on this world will be good and which will be evil. God simply prevents the conception of those who will be evil. The population of the world will always consist of people who choose to never commit an evil act. The result is a world free from evil in which no one's free will has been violated.
Thus, assuming that God prefers good acts to evil ones, the free will defense doesn't get God of the hook. Since God COULD prevent moral evil simply by permitting only the existence of those people whom God knows beforehand will never, ever commit an evil act, God is responsible for moral evil. Remember, God isn't constraining people to act in a good manner, he isn't mucking about with free will - he is simply not allowing evil acts to be performed by making sure that people who perform them don't exist.
One could make a similar argument that God is equally culpable for natural evil.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
