Being all powerful and all knowing, 'god' could have just changed the parameters of the experiment and made things completely different but instead we are asked to believe that 'god' is a mad scientist that just throws everything into the crucible and waits to see what happens with free will.
The logic is so inane and so maddening that it is a wonder that more people haven't seen through this hog wash. If the Earth and mankind are just some weird experiment then it was a hypothesis developed by a sick and twisted mind. Alternately, it's just a stupid story that was written by people who just a bit smarter than the stupid people that they told it to and who believed it.

What IS that, an elf?

According to the book, it was actually god who. "Hardened Pharaoh's heart." So he took away Pharaoh's free will, in order to make it happen.