The reason, according to Genesis, that humans have pain and suffering is that Yhwh cursed all humanity because the first two humans made a rather understandable mistake. Now, of course, I have considered how absurdly, breathtakingly cruel it would be to punish all humanity for the mistakes of two humans, but I never considered why we are still being punished. After all, Jesus died for our sins, right? That definitely includes Original Sin. So why do we still live under the curse of original sin?
My answer is that there is no god, no Adam and Eve, no original Sin and no curse. Bad stuff happens because it does. People grow old and die because entropy always wins.
Christians, however, have to come up with some other reason, and it is as breathtakingly cruel as the curse itself:
We know that the curse is the result of man's sin. And why then are we, who are forgiven of sin, still living the curse?
Because the curse is a constant reminder that we are in desperate need of salvation. It was designed with a purpose--put there for our good—so that we might understand our need for a saviour.
Wow. That's . . . indescribable. Imagine that your great great great great great great great great grandfather murdered someone, was tried, convicted and spent the remainder of life in prison. Would you find it fair for you to be in prison for his crime? Of course not. Your grandparents weren't alive when the crime was committed, why should you be punished for it? Your grandfather already paid his debt to society, why should you have to do it again?
What if the answer to that question was "yes, the bet is paid, but we're going to imprison every member of your family forever to show everyone else that we take murder very seriously"?
Apparently, if you're Christian, you think that's love.
