Appoligies, my computer broke and I'm at the library. I only skimmed the posts to find responses to me. If I missed something please direct me.
Yes meddling with nature. He would choose to leave evil out of the equation for no other reason than to stop people carrying it out.
If I build a sand castle but leave out a tree just so that 'imaginary sand people' cannot make a tireswing, have I taken away their freewill? Is it meddling to create a perfectly legitamite sandcastle without ever having a tree, or is it meddling to remove the tree after having conceived it? Is it meddling if it is my sandcastle? (I am only indulging this definition because it sounds as if you use the connotation of meddling with misguided, wrongful, or unneeded to justify the nonaction of removing evil.)
It's very simple if we are both making the same assumptions: First, evil exists. Second, God can create a universe with evil or one without it.
Evil and God were defined as such for the argument to apply, so yes to both.
So it follows logically that if he creates a universe without evil then all inhabitants do not have free will because although evil exists they will never have the choice to carry it out.
This is flawed. No choice to carry one exact 'something' out is not a counter example of free will.
EXAMPLE:
You do not have the choice of spontaneously duplicating yourself all over the universe. HOWEVER, you still (potentially) have free will.
......Pay attention to the underlined parts in your quote above. "Evil vesus no evil". Your proof uses two mutually exclusive conditions.
You said it yourself "the remaining options". So God removes certain options thus he removes free will.
Same flawed statement. Not having options is not necessariliy a limit of free will. See above.
Also ask any theist they will tell you that this is covered in the Bible. It's an old debate and there is only one logical conclusion: If God wanted humans to have free will and choose to serve him then he had to provide them with all choices otherwise we are slaves whether we are ignorant of evil or not.
I'd rather not bring the bible into this proof, becaue there is no foundation for its claims, my argument doesn't oppose just this religion, it can't be taken literally, and does not contribute to this in any way that I can see.
Not "ignorant" to evil. God could create evil as a logical impossibility in itself. Right now, it is impossible (in this reality) to do many things because they are logically impossible. EXAMPLE:
A bachelor cannot be married because of a logical consequence of being
not married. Sure, some married people may act like bachelors but they really aren't.