“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life.”
A creature that can only obey is an instrument. The Creator did not want instruments; the entire biblical narrative presupposes beings who can answer, refuse, return.
Freedom, however, is not a neutral gift. It necessarily includes the real possibility of its own misuse, otherwise it is only the appearance of choice arranged in advance.
This is the first turn of the argument: evil is not something God made. It is the shadow-side of something God made — genuine freedom — and the shadow only takes shape when a will chooses it.
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