I knew that point would get pushback. You're right, God also made this world abundant. And right again, scarcity mindset is us, not God. But I maintain my assertion that God created a cruel world because that's just what it is - look at nature, look even at Jesus' murder. Is there an instance if happiness anywhere on Earth that isn't paid for up front with an instance of suffering?

And you can say that pain and suffering are two different things, but that's only if you choose to make them different, and that mindset is entirely human. And you could say that the state of the world is because of our fall from grace, but I must disagree when comes to biology - our sin does not cause a praying mantis to rip the wings off of butterflies.

Christian theology still works. It just has to be shifted in perspective. What it absolutely must never be is untruthful or fanciful. "Logos" means logic, literally. Jesus said "I am the truth." Christianity cannot continue existing in these untrue, unbiblical, interpretive illusions. If the bible starts off on the first page with something that should raise serious questions about the moral character of God, then we can't hide from that. It must be handled **_in logos_** - logically. Logic is the path to truth. That is the most Christian thing that can be said. Logic is the path to truth. I know plenty of Christians will hem and haw about that, and some would construct some fanciful thing about Logos meaning something else - those are pied pipers.