Religion

[BAndrew]

@Dogfood (and at everyone else interested)

You chose the third possibility (see the quote by Epicurus above) and tried to explain why evil exists. In your answer you mentioned free will.

Able and willing, evil comes from our own free will because if God was to smite OR restrict everything that is not "good" then what would we be? machines that could not do anything unless the guy up there moves the strings or "pushes the button".

I will prove that free will and God being omniscient (all-knowing) are contradictory.

1. A being with free will, given two options A and B, can freely choose between A and B.
   
2. God is omniscient (all-knowing).
   
3. God knows I will choose A.
   
4. God cannot be wrong, since an omniscient being cannot have false knowledge.
   
5. From 3 and 4, I will choose A and cannot choose B
   
6. Therefore I do not choose freely. Free will is an illusion.
   

Contradiction!

Therefore omniscience and free will cannot co-exist.