The Problem of Evil, Christians, and Inconsistency

[Neo-Scholastic]

...Abbot Christopher Jamison is a Benedictine monk who was headmaster of the well-respected Worth school in England. He recounted that parents of prospective children would come and visit and would often say something along the lines of "I just want my child to be happy". He said he wondered why he never heard "I just want my children to be of service to others", or "I just want my children to love".

The sentiment of these parents fits well with Aquinas's conception of 'blessedness" that in turn comes from Aristotle's focus on happiness in the Nichomachian Ethics. Neither results in the pleasure principle. Blessedness would come from service to God and others, i.e. being Christ-like in the world.

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Children that die at birth are raised by angels in the spiritual world and prepared to take their place in heaven

Chad, where do you come up with that? I don't recall anything in the Bible stating that.

"May it be known, therefore, that every child who dies, no matter where he or she was born, within the church or outside it, of devout or irreverent parents, is accepted by the Lord after death, brought up in heaven, taught according to the divine design and filled with affections for what is good and through them with direct knowledge of the truth; and then, being continually perfected in intelligence and wisdom, all such individuals are led into heaven and become angels." - Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, Section 329.

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In defense of Drich, the God of the Bible does not promise believers freedom suffering (ex. Job); but rather, justice.