A theodicy’s main purpose is to simply describe how it is possible for an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect God to create a world where evil does exist. The theodicy, as Sam Miller from John Perry’s Dialogue on Evil, Good, and the Existence of God emphasizes multiple times over the course of the dialogue, only has to be consistent in its explanation, which means that the points made in the theodicy do not need to be true or even plausible. The free will theodicy explains that there is evil in a world that the morally perfect God has created because he chose to give his creatures free will over creating a perfectly good world without evil, but without free will as well. The free will theodicy responds to the premise that there is a reason for the evil that occurs in the world. Evil arises in the form of the free creatures’ weaknesses. Because they are able to freely choose the bad over the good, evil is introduced into the world as a result of the exercise of free will. However, God chose to create a world with free will, even though there is evil, because he thinks that the good that comes out of having free will ultimately outweigh the badness from the evil that comes with it. God believed that a world with free will would definitely be better than a world without free will, even if it meant his free creatures would sometimes choose bad over good when given the choice. The theodicy describes how evil in this world is necessary (as a result of free will) in order for it to be a better world than one without free creatures, because God ultimately desires to create a better world.
However, the first objection to the free will theodicy raises the question if evil is really necessary for the good of free will. The question says that if God is omnipotent and can create a world where the creatures always freely choose the good choice, then why would God create a world where the free creatures sometimes chose the bad over the good (assuming this is the...