The Logical Atheist

Does the cliche God works his will in mysterious ways really comfort you when contemplating the horrible things God does or lets happen (which is the same thing since he created the universe and knew the future): childhood cancer, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, fatal automobile accidents, wife-beating, child abuse, genocide, and the rest?

Is something good because God says so or does God say so because it's good. Plato has Socrates take up this question in an early dialogue, Euthyphro ( trans. Benjamin Jowett ) : Euth.  Yes, I should say that what all the gods love is pious  and holy, and the opposite which they all hate, impious. Soc.  Ought we to enquire into the truth of this, Euthyphro,  or simply to accept the mere statement on our own authority and that of  others? What do you say? Euth.  We should enquire; and I believe that the statement  will stand the test of enquiry. Soc.  We shall know better, my good friend, in a little while.  The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious  or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is  beloved of the gods. Euth.  I do not understand your meaning,  Socrates. Soc.  I will endeavour to explain: we, speak of carrying  and we speak of being carried, of ...

Before we speak, therefore, of an infinite sin, or an infinite evil, we should consider the capacity of those beings to whom this evil is attributed; if the acting agents are infinite in their nature and character, the effects of their operations may be so too, but if they are finite, their actions can lay no claim to an infinite effect. Sin is the consequence of the infraction of moral law; if this infraction be made by an infinite being, the criminality would be like the being who made it, that is of an infinite quality; but if the infraction be made by an imperfect being, the criminality is finite, and limited in its essential nature. It follows, of course, as man is a finite and imperfect agent; if he cannot do an infinite act, he is incapable of an infinite evil, and does not deserve an infinite punishment; consequently, the idea of eternal death is unjust and unreasonable. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806),  Principles of Nature; or, A Development of  the Moral Causes of Happin...

The sensation, the intellect, the capacities of man, taught him that he was subject to a variety of evils; but instead of searching for the cause of these evils, where only they were to be found, he suffered the operations of intellect to be subjugated by the pride and arrogance of superstition, and he no longer discerned the true connection between the miseries which he felt, and the active and natural causes which produced them; he no longer beheld his true condition in nature, but weakly imagined that he had become the object of malevolent intention in some superior being, who took delight in his torture, and wilfully subjected him to the diversified misfortunes with which he was assailed. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of  the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

Epicurus's old questions are yet unanswered. Is he [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil? --David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

You hear this a lot. Theists want to know why atheists think people ought not to believe in God (or anything supernatural). Books could be written on the subject, but I will make just one point. Belief in God (I'm thinking here of the Abrahamic tradition) requires you to set aside your perceptions and rational moral judgment in favor of cliches like "God moves in mysterious ways." If you see bad things being done, know that they only appear to be bad from your worm's eye view. If you knew what God knows -- which of course you cannot -- you'd understand. In my book, that is enough to condemn theism.