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And the natural extension of this statement is to make sure we kill off everyone that has any medical or health problems or, what the heck, let's get everyone to heaven sooner and just kill them all. What have we really lost?

Obviously you don't have any answers to my questions either, but have instead selected a typical straw-man argument. Don't feel too badly though, I've asked a number of theologians these same sorts of questions and none has any answers for me.

The only way I can reconcile the "Problem of Evil", as my boyfriend calls it, requires a bit of stretch in thinking.

For a moment, let us assume that there is an afterlife out there--an eternal one. Furthermore, let us assume that God is the God of love and joy, as He is protrayed in the Bible--Jesus loved people, and Jesus loved parties. Hebrew worship was a joyous occassion--with dancing and music... how sad that joy has been taken out of worship in the Western culture!

Moving on, if there is an eternity out there--then it is not an unreasonable assumption that God sees the events of our worlds in a much different light than we do. "Luminous beings are we--not this crude matter." CS Lewis described the physical worlds as the "shadowlands"--our time on Earth is but a painful flicker in eternity. Suppose we go into an eternal Paradise--would we not view any time on earth as a very short and miserable time whether it be 2 weeks in the womb, 4 years, 40, or 100?

I'm sorry I don't have any better answers. Kindest regards, NX