Yes, well. As I stated in my remarks, all of this hinges on a particularly Latter-day Saint doctrine (as quoted from the Doctrine & Covenants above), and the idea contained therein that “intelligence” cannot be created or made. This entire theodicy proceeds from that premise.

It seems to me more accurate to assume that as our souls are created in God’s image, our intellects are created images of God’s uncreated intellect. Nothing is evil about having an intellect (or, as I prefer to call it a will) of our own, since it’s an image of one of God’s omnibenevolent aspects. All evil comes rather from the image’s attempts to supplant its original: for an individual’s created will to act contrary to God’s uncreated will.

To be sure, creation in God’s image is indeed different from creation ex nihilo. Like everything else in the physical universe, our bodies were created ex nihilo: time, space, energy, and matter had no pre-existent eternal template before God ordered them into existence. Our souls, however, had their very Creator as their pre-existent eternal template: in effect, our Author created us to be authors. While I agree that our eternal souls’ eternal intellect (i.e. free will) is what makes evil possible even in the presence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God, therefore, I must disagree that this aspect is in any way uncreated simply because it is eternal.