Free Will Theodicy

In a nutshell, the free will theodicy asserts that God granted humans free will to make them ``free moral agents.'' These ``free moral agents'' happen to chose evil. So evil is a human creation versus a creation of God himself. As such, God was not the direct cause of evil, but only an indirect cause. For many theologians this may count as an acceptable excuse.

The basic assumption of the free will theodicy is that God values free will (much more so is gained through free will, than what is lost through choosing evil with free will.) Free will brings about the possibility of evil. God then takes a ``risk'' at the possibility of evil for the greater value of free will, or the moral autonomy of humans.