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The first premise from the argument of evil states that an omnipotent, benevolent God would prevent evil from existing. The second premise then states that evil does indeed exist. We are therefore to conclude that an omnipotent, benevolent God does not exist. The argument aims to show that God couldn't possibly exist because there is just too much evil in the world.
Evil which God could have control over if he so desired. The idea of freewill now comes to mind. It is possible that God doesn't want to control evil. If he controlled evil, he would then be controlling human beings. God wants us to choose to live the ways in which he wants us to.
We, therefore, have a choice to try and do what is right and follow God. Or, on the other hand, involve ourselves with evil and disobey God's commands. This is very important to God. He wants good to be in our hearts freely. That way, He knows that we won't disobey him if given the opportunity.
Why is this so important? The story of the angels might make this clear. Long before humans, God created angels who were not given the opportunity of freewill. They were made to be perfect beings in God's eyes. But one of them decided that he didn't like God having all of the power and became very greedy and wanted to overthrow God. This angel was then cast out of heaven and into hell along with his followers.
They were not given the chance to choose God, and therefore disobeyed him. God didn't want to make that mistake again. He, therefore, gave humans freewill. Why didn't God see it coming that the angels would disobey him? And why couldn't he prevent this from happening in the first place? This question has no easy answer.
Maybe it's just something that humans can't fully understand. It is true that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, but maybe other beings need freewill to point them in the right direction. There is always the chance that a being made to be perfect will not end up that way. For they are not God. Our life on earth is a test from God. It also doesn't seem possible to me that there could be good without evil.
They go hand in hand. How could you judge things as good if there were not evil things to compare them by? The fact that God can't give humans the choice of one without the other doesn't mean that he isn't all-powerful. He could have either given humans both good and evil, or neither. An argument to the freewill idea is that if God is all-powerful, why couldn't God have made humans to always freely choose good? His failure to do this is inconsistent with being omnipotent and wholly good.
First, I don't think that good can be created without evil. And second, it wouldn't truly be freewill if you could only choose good things and not evil. In conclusion, I do think that the idea of God wanting us to have free will does justify the fact that evil exists. Therefore, it cannot be concluded from the opening argument that God doesn't exist because of the existence of evil. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Omnipotent Benevolent God Made To Be Perfect Evil
