FREE ESSAY ON THE QUESTION OF EVIL

THE QUESTION OF EVIL

The Question of Evil
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.