God and the existence of evil

There is a lot of confusion about evil. 

Some deny it exists and others believe it is a creation of God to test us and to educate and strengthen us.

My own understanding is that neither of these viewpoints are true.

As soon as a being is created with free will the potential for using that will destructively exists.

So evil, from this perspective, is a choice made by a free will being to act destructively, individually or en masse, towards other beings.

Why a being would choose to attempt to control and damage other beings is a big question which requires a detailed answer.

I recommend Kim Michael's books and his website articles for that.

It's been a fascination of his for some time, and his books are very detailed and are the consequence of inspiration, like many writings in the Bible.

To summarise what I'm saying here:

1. God did not create evil, but he created beings with free will that could choose an upward path  or a downward path in evolution.

2. Whether God foresaw how some free will beings would use that free will destructively is beyond my knowledge base. 

I don't necessarily believe God is all knowing, or at least able to predict the outcome of free will choices with certainty. 

That's the whole point of having free will. 

If behaviour could be accurately predicted 100% ahead of time it wouldn't be free will, it would be determinism, which would be like creating an army of robots. 

And that would be boring and pointless.

Without the unexpected there would be very little point to life.

3. By the respecting of free will, even what we would call "evil actions" must be allowed. 

In fact, there may be no way to stop such actions without harming every living thing on the planet.

For example, the great flood in which Noah and his family and a selection of animals (and plants?) survived. 

This was to wipe out the evil (which can mean humankind becoming deeply mired in materialism) which had become out of control and was causing souls to sink into the abyss.

Such circumstances may require the overriding of free will so that a new "playing board" can be created to allow upward spritual growth to happen once again.