Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.
 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952). copy citation

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Author C. S. Lewis
Source Mere Christianity
Topic goodness evil
Date 1952
Language English
Reference
Note Adapted from a series of BBC radio talks made between 1942 and 1944
Weblink https://www.dacc.edu/assets/pdfs/PCM/merechristianitylewis.pdf

Context

“Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water.” source