Why did god create evil?

[lucent]

If you know that a person will be on the corner of 3rd and Main at 3pm on Friday. If this is your gift, you're never wrong. That man has no choice does he. 3pm Friday he'll be there. GG Free Will. If the future is written the choices have already been made. It doesn't matter if you personally are privvy to the data. No one has to interfere, or even have the power to interfere or control. It doesn't matter how many "choices" you make everyday. It's gone, nada, eroded to nothing. This is so unbelievably simple that I know you understand and simply can't accept it because it ran all over your dogma.

Precognition invalidates free will in any form. They are incompatible concepts. There is absolutely nothing that one can say to tie the two together and maintain the integrity of both.

First of all, this is a false analogy. God isn't a precog. He knows the future because He exists outside of time and everything from beginning to end is in front of Him. He is also not bound by the future. He can, at any time, modify whatever He wants, and change the scenerio to give His creatures different choices. Some things are set in stone, such as judgement day. Others are more fluid. Do you think God involves Himself in whether you eat wheaties or cheerios? Some things are determined but not everything. In any moment, God is capable of offering His creatures significant freedom without pushing them towards one choice or another.

If a precog see's a terrible disaster, ending in the deaths of many many people, but does nothing to try and avoid this, they are implicated in the event. On the other hand, this could lead to cassandra syndrome, whereby you can predict but you are "cursed" so that none would listen. This is a common theme in greek mythology, hilariously it's pretty common in christianity as well. Hellenized christians. Long story short, when the "inevitable happens" someone is at fault, either the precog or those that didn't listen, but either way you go no one has the choice of averting the disaster, if precognition is possible. These waters are muddy because it's an exercise in thought and imagination, with nothing in the real world to back any of it up.

God isn't responsible for His creatures choices, His creatures are. Neither is God going to alleviate their responsibility for making those choices. Your big assumption is that trial and hardship are incompatible with His planning. God can use the good and the evil that His creatures do for the greater good. The freewill choice that they have is more important.

Christians, christian theology, and christian philosophy (apologetics) have nothing to offer that the greeks haven't already covered. Not only that, they did it with more flair, more style, more depth, and a better understanding of the entire enterprise. Importantly, they did it first.

(@OP: He didn't. I probably already said that, but it's worth saying until people stop asking these sorts of questions, even if it's only a rhetorical device)

You would say that because you're a relativist, and apparently a sophist. You're not even interested in the philosophical implications of what you believe; in that regard you have proven to be intellectually incurious. For those of us who understand the truth is absolute, greek philosophy is like wearing waterwings in the kiddie pool. And Judiasm predates greek philosophy/mythology.