The free will aspect is crucially important and works incredibly well because it allows believers to excuse God and explain away Man's imperfection and ability to be corrupted, even though He supposedly made us. It makes Him infallible in the face of what He's created. (The Garden of Eden story is utterly hokey compared to the rest of the stories in the Bible and falls apart under scrutiny trying to form the "argument from God" the rest of the Old Testament relies on)
Its also one of the oldest debates in human history. Boethius wrote Consolation of Philosophy 1500 years ago on the very topic of free will vs predestination under God.
The free will aspect is crucially important and works incredibly well because it allows believers to excuse God and explain away Man's imperfection and ability to be corrupted, even though He supposedly made us. It makes Him infallible in the face of what He's created. (The Garden of Eden story is utterly hokey compared to the rest of the stories in the Bible and falls apart under scrutiny trying to form the "argument from God" the rest of the Old Testament relies on)
Its also one of the oldest debates in human history. Boethius wrote Consolation of Philosophy 1500 years ago on the very topic of free will vs predestination under God.