For Atheists and Believers, Ignorance Is No Excuse

I'm not trying to be a smart ass but I wish to query, why, if God is love, would God want any of its creation to suffer? I was raised Catholic and came to the point where I could no longer buy the whole fire and brimstone thing. If indeed there is a higher power, then I believe it is more like the Native American Great Spirit than like the church God that I grew up with. To punish your creations for not believing in your existence seems to me to be very egotistical, and being egotistical is a human condition. A higher power would have no need for such frailty.
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