"God has morally sufficient reasons for permitting evil"

[Faith No More]

Religion calls us to go further. To sacrifice and suffer for the little boy, with the little boy, because it taps in to the aspects of human nature that act outside of reason.

So, essentially, that little boy's suffering is for your, and his, benefit. I wonder if you would feel that way if the positions were reversed?

Regardless, the religion that calls you to go further is also the religion that worships a god that supposedly set up the system in the first place. Could god not have created a way for us to grow as human beings both spiritually and intellectually without having suffering involved? The problem with the "growth from suffering" argument is that it fails to take into account that god is omnipotent and responsible for everything. So, if you want to use the argument that we grow from suffering, you have to acknowledge that god is the one that made it that way and that he could have made that same growth attainable without the pain brought on by suffering. Ultimately, you have to accept that suffering exists for the sake of suffering.