The Problem of Evil, Christians, and Inconsistency

[Mudhammam]

"But, ah!" the Christian is likely to retort, "in heaven, we choose to be good all the time! Our freedom is not impugned because we have made our choice on earth, since that is the purpose of our free will here, that it allows us to choose God, and that makes heaven an even better possible domain to dwell in! Therefore, no one in heaven will want to do evil!"

Well, if that was offered as a rebuttal, then I would respond, "Why couldn't God have made Earth like that?" After all, if a logical state can exist where people can a.) know for a fact that God exists, b.) have free will, and c.) only choose to do good, then clearly you can have free will without having evil exist! This is about as close to an Achilles' heel for the free will defense as one can find.

Exactly. I'm surprised that point isn't made more often. A) and B) taken alone don't pose any of the real difficulties that believers allege they would... as evidenced by numerous examples in their own holy books.