From a recent letter to The Hindu, on the issue of how God, if He existed, allowed so many innocent people to be killed in the tsunami disaster:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?

There are two ways that believers answer this:

1. Karma: People, though they may be innocent in this life, would still be held accountable for the bad karma accumulated during their past lives.


2. The 'equilateral triangle' argument: Once someone is part of this physical world, there is no way he can escape any of the tribulations and suffering that living in such a world entails (it's called the 'equilateral triangle' argument because once God creates an equilateral triangle, even He doesn't have the power to make its sides unequal; this book has an excellent essay regarding this issue).

There is also a third argument: life as we know it is nothing more than an illusion; the pain and suffering that we endure in this life is akin to what we experience in a dream. Once we awaken from this 'sleep', we will realize this and simply shrug it off as we would a bad dream.

The folks over at alt.atheism will have some (not so pleasant) things to say about this, of course.

Disclaimer: I am not an atheist myself, though I have pretty much abandoned the concept of God as a deity listening to people's prayers, doling out wishes and punishing evildoers.