Free Will
Even when we ask why God allows evil, we excuse God from being evil by taking refuge in the notion of free will. God gave us free will, and we use our free will to do evil. Evil isn’t God’s fault; it’s our fault. But why did God give us free will?
Why couldn’t God have created us without free will? What would we lose if we were incapable of doing evil—if we lacked the capacity for hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, ecocide, homicide, and the rest? And if we were created without free will, would we even know it?
If you lacked the ability to do evil, would you complain, “I wish I had free will so I could rape and pillage and plunder and murder”? The thought would never cross your mind because the very idea of evil would be unimaginable.
The reason we are taught God gave us free will and therefore the capacity to do evil is that without this belief, we cannot reward those who do what we like and condemn those who don’t. Without free will, heaven and hell (or a better or worse rebirth) make no sense.
Here’s the thing about free will. It isn’t free.
RR