The problem of evil/suffering when it comes to children

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Agreed, this would require him to be omnibenevolent, although I don't know if that's a doctrine. If so, then it would present another problem of conflict, because "God's benevolent love" is not unconditional - you have to be a believer, or do your penance!

Personally, I don't care what the Xtians have decided their god thinks of us - if he is in every way unlimited and perfect, then it has no prejudices anyway, and should be expected to prevent evil. If it's really that perfect, then it should not have to think at all. God would be an intergalactic and unlimited robot which responds when and where needed always, and without any of that petty and quibbling human nonsense such as favoritism or prejudice. I suppose this would be benevolence, which is not necessarily the same as love is in the point which I just argued above, but both are surely absent when you choose to allow evil.

What I was trying to do was point out the conflicts of actual Christian doctrines, and I don't know if "omnibenevolence" is among them. I don't recall seeing that in my Fundy school curricula, nor can I remember hearing it from any church pulpit. But those days are now ages past, so I suppose they could be teaching anything now.

While the bible does not say the word omnibenevolent, it is certainly taught that god is all good. Even when god does something we consider evil, the xitan argues that we just don't understand his ways and he is doing it for a greater good. He must be omnibenevolent in the eyes of the believer otherwise "faith" breaks down, because you can't blindly support him when there are doubts as to whether his actions are good or evil. I agree there are many things that contradict the idea that god is omnibenevolent, which is why I find the problem of evil a compelling argument.

In my experience, having wasted so many Sunday mornings in different sectarian churches, I found that evangelical Protestants are best at playing up the "God's perfect love" idea. Of course all Xtian sects teach that Gawd loves us, but they would not all need to backpedal so much from that other doctrine that he's a jealous god, for which there actually is a clause in the first commandment. In a conservative Dutch Reformed church which I attended with my parents, the 10 Commandments were recited by the entire congregation, in sync, on a regular basis. Evangelical Protestants, on the other hand, generally try and pretend that the Old Testament doesn't exist, which sort of does make it easier to emphasize a god of love. So it may depend on which church you attend, but the three most common omni doctrines focus on infinite power, presence, and intelligence, which are relatively safe from conflicts with other doctrines. Well, they are given that the believer fails to demand any specific quality for that other doctrine that "God is perfect".

EDIT: I confess I did pull all of the above from my memory, which is as selective as anyone's. I said evangelical Protestants tend to ignore the Old Testament because I cannot ever remember having sat through a 10-Commandments reading in a more charismatic church. Also, I'm not really sure if radicalism and evangelicalism are separable, although the constipation-faced creeps in swanky suits and polished shoes who hate all secular entertainment and try to use the law against all secular culture are certainly a different approach to evangelicalism than the charismatics, most of whom are more easy-going (but about as dumb) than Westboro Baptist. Anywy, they all teach the OT, when it's convenient for teaching obedience.