Question Number 3

The answers to questions 1 and 2, as we saw, basically came down to free will. So does question number 3. The question was "Why does God allow sin?" It could be phrased a little better by replacing the word sin with the words free will.
All sin and all pain come down to free will. So let's look at what is meant by "free will." What exactly does it mean?
Well, if you want to study something, you should go to the place where it began. To understand the meaning of a word, study the root, not the prefix. To study free will, look at the first time it was ever exercised--the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve were the first people that God created. In the book of Genesis, He is described as creating the entire universe in six days, and then resting on the seventh. There's a debate among Christians whether these six days of creation are literal, or whether they actually span millions or billions of years, therefore including the theory of evolution in the story of creation.
It doesn't matter right now. The important thing is, Adam and Eve were the first people ever to live on this planet.
They lived in a beautiful garden, with trees bearing fruit of every kind. It was pretty much paradise. They were happy, and it seems that they were even a little childlike in some ways. For example, the Bible says that they were unaware of their nakedness. When the snake came to talk to Eve, she saw nothing strange in a talking snake. Everything was perfect.
But they were not childlike in one way. God put a tree in the middle of the garden, which they were not allowed to eat from. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew they should not eat from that tree. But they did.
Anyone who's made it this far probably already knows the story, so I'm not going to outline the rest of it. Here's the question that has arisen in my mind:
Why did God put the tree there? Did he want them to sin?
Adam and Eve had free will. They didn't have to eat the fruit, but they were capable of it. So this tree is the beginning of free will. It all comes down to the above question. Why did He put the tree there?
There are several possibilities.

1. He wanted them to eat the forbidden fruit. I really doubt this one. After Adam and Eve eat the fruit, the Bible records great disappointment from God. He did not want them to eat it. It just doesn't fit with His nature. Scratch off number one.

2. He was testing them. I've heard this theory stated from several sources, but it also doesn't fit with God's nature. Satan is the tempter. If God tempted us, one of the lines of the Lord's Prayer would become entirely void. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One." God does not tempt us with evil.

3. It had a purpose later on. This is the most complex. Let's see if I can explain it. . .
Not for no reason is this the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is something that just happens. Anything thay has a fully functioning mind gathers knowledge. Anyone who's been around small children knows that it is important to humanity to gather knowledge. They constantly ask questions (like "what is that thing for?" "Why do you want to do that?" "But why would that happen?" etc.). They also tend to ask questions beyond their capacity to understand (i.e. "where do babies come from?).
Maybe Adam and Eve were the same way. Maybe God was waiting for them to be ready to understand good and evil before he allowed them to eat the fruit. Toddlers aren't taught about the source of life, because they aren't ready to understand it.

All this is just speculation. It may be none of the above. But the third possibility, to me, seems to be the most likely. So here's the answer:
God allowed sin into the world because the option had to be there, because the Tree of Good and Evil was there. It's as complexly simple as that.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell