I don't think God wanted a bunch of programmed robots, but he wanted friends (in a way), so he gave us free will. It was a gift, often miss-used.
Even though our own children have some free will, still they complain we are too strict. How much more we would have complained and ranted and raved if God had forced us be good and sweet and compassionate and doing community service and donating our time and money all the time.
I'm sure he'd rather answer prayers than customer service gripes.
If the Bible falls apart, it's because mere men interpreted what God said in translation, which was originally inspired and totally true.
Now, if women had written the Bible, things would have kept much more in line with what God intended in the first place.

I like my free will lol. My free will did turn me away from god, seeing as I have no proof that he exists

Yes, meaning that God could have avoided his don dying if he had just not given us free will.

The bible tends to fall apart with close scrutiny, this isn't surprising.

Currently it's impossible not to 'sin'. I have no choice in this as I am not perfect in energy, spirit or body, and as I understand it, neither is any one else, so the logic is unfounded.

Also one would need a very clear description and understanding of what exactly is meant by 'sin'.

But a nice question and attempt nevertheless.

Who do you think invented free will?

It's not the 'root' of all evil, it's just the reason why we have access to it.

'God' is the root of all evil (the creator of it, and therefore the root cause).

Of course it's fine that you couldn't get back to me sooner. I appreciate the effort you have put in to find this thread after all this time. At the beginning of this conversation I have to admit, I approached this topic with a bit of pride and maybe anger too. I realize this was not a correct way to do things, I may have come across arrogant or even obnoxious and for that I apologize.

That doesn't mean I take back or even don't mean any of the things I said, I just think I could have said them in a more respectful way maybe.

I checked out that link you gave me, and read a little bit. The first part was simply telling me the story of the bible, which I already know pretty well as I am doing an A Level Philosophy and ethics course which is based around christian philosophy and ethics. (If you don't know, an A Level course is something in the U.K you can choose to do when you finish compulsory education) Anyway I'm not bragging that I do that course or saying I'm a know it all, just that I am quite familiar with the story or at least the important parts.

And so I lost interest when the site started telling me that Jesus died for my sins and what not. So I clicked on the link "how do we know this is true" and I was disappointed and somewhat confused at what I found.

"I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." - This was the headline to that link I clicked on. So it seemed to me that it was saying, to find out the truth I have to believe in christ before I am given any sort of personal revelation, which seems to be the product this site is marketing. This is illogical. I have to believe in something BEFORE the revelation, surely that's just unreasonable, and in fact impossible. I couldn't have faith in something which has no evidence, and I have been given no personal revelation, at least not true faith. Because my mind will not allow me to do it, I mean any thinking persons mind should not allow them to do it that's like trying to have faith in unicorns. I CANNOT and CANNOT understand how any thinking rational person could have faith in something and hold a belief in it, before the personal revelation or evidence is shown. It's an unreasonable request!

I am sorry I do not doubt your sincerity, I believed in god and christ and the story when I was younger, but as soon as I started arguing and seeing that I could only deny what the opposition of religion were saying for so long. I had to accept the truth, even though believing in god and an after life is comforting, I hold the belief that a universe without god is a place more mysterious and beautiful than a universe with god.

Thanks for your time. I wish you the best.

Peace

"In the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of God.[1] The problem is most often discussed in the context of the personal god of the Abrahamic religions, but is also relevant to polytheistic traditions involving many gods.

Most theists respond that a perfect being may still allow some evil, asserting that it will enable certain greater goods, such as free will, which can not be achieved without allowing some evils."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil

You are correct that human free will is what allows humans to make unfortunate decisions, but it’s also what allows us to make fortunate decisions. If we didn’t have the ability to do evil, we wouldn’t have the ability to do good, either.

An existence without free will was the plan that Lucifer presented before the Council in Heaven—a plan that our Heavenly Father rejected because, to put it bluntly, it was stupid. Without free will, we couldn’t learn to make correct choices and would wind up returning to our Heavenly Father in basically the same state as when we left. What good would that do? Thus, our agency was allowed and a Savior was provided to make up for any area in which we fall short (which covers a *lot* of areas). We still learn to choose the right, but with Jesus as Advocate, we don’t have to worry so much about the times we fail.

HTH!

My opinion is the inability of man & woman to tell the difference between what is truly right/wrong and good/bad is what is the root of all evil. Not so much having free will as that only gives them the free discretion and ability to carry out what they choose to do.