Anybody up for an arguement against my Christian beliefs?

[Rev. Rye]

Well, here's an argument I've wanted to make for a while.


Fact: The movie The Girl Next Door is about the torture of two girls by their aunt, a churchgoing woman, and the neighborhood kids she attracts. The aunt and her children eventually zero in on one girl and eventually brand her and kill her after several months of torture. Think me frivolous for using Hollywood to argue against the existence of a loving, personal God? Well, as it turns out, and as that sentence below the title should have tipped off, this is actually based on a true story. The girl was Sylvia Likens. And, in many parts, the true story is even more brutal than the Hollywood version. What especially horrified me was that the kids who did the torturing effectively got off scot free, and the woman who led them, the Cherbnabog of Indianapolis, ended up living the last few years of her life as a free woman on an "I was high at the time" excuse.

Now, there are two replies that are often given to justify the non-interference of God in such matters from Christians and other Theists.
1) "There's always a silver lining." I heard from apologist Richard Swinburne that it was justifiable for God to not interfere with the Holocaust because it could give some individuals an opportunity for heroism. Be that as it may, there is no such example of heroism in the case of Sylvia. None of the kids seemed to find any real grounds for noncompliance with her aunt, and certainly, if there was, it all added to nothing. Even her sister, Jenny, who was also tortured, could only watch as her sister died a slow and painful death at the hands of the neighborhood kids.
2) "Why do I allow it? Why do You allow it?" You may also say that it is simply a matter of free will, and that it wouldn't be right for God to take away our free will. To this, I have to say this: so, if you know a girl is being tortured by her aunt and the children around her, and you have the power to stop them, but doing nothing, is that Good? For that matter, if one creates a universe in which such actions are options, and that it's imperative that those who want to do so are able to? How are any of these the marks of a Good, All-Powerful being?