Let me tell you about "Bill." If you know Bill, he's the best guy you know. He's honest, generous, and hardworking. He helps everyone, even people he doesn't particularly like. If you're lucky enough to have him as your neighbor, he's the best neighbor ever. Bill's a better person than most of the "church people" he knows. Because of that, he has no interest in the gospel. He doesn't need Jesus. Christians have taught him that.
I managed to grow up basically untouched by the problem of evil. Whether I was blessed or just blinkered may be up for debate, but even into my young adulthood, pain and suffering was something that, in my experience, mostly just happened as you got old.
That illusion was ripped apart one day.
