Suffering

People don't believe in God for all sorts of reasons, I suppose, but only one ever made any sense to me: the existence of suffering. You know the argument: If God can prevent suffering but doesn't, then he is not good; if he cannot prevent suffering, he is not God.

The argument can be made at considerably greater length, however, and that's what James Wood does in a recent New Yorker article titled "Holiday in Hellmouth." And he does it brilliantly. (If the link earlier in this paragraph doesn't work, or if you'd like a pdf version of the article that is more reader friendly than the version on the New Yorker web site, just let me know.)