This is one that I try not to fall back on - it feels a little dishonest to claim that reason is the only basis for a decision and then resort to this, but occassionally the situation warrants it.

I have two children, both with conditions that the best scientific evidence suggests are genetically influenced, even if they aren't directly inherited. This brings them - and my wife and I, in different ways - a degree of suffering and hardship.

My wife and I, I will concede, have not lived lives that would strictly comply with absolutely every moral code in every religion.

My children, though, were born with these conditions before they were ever able to start to conceive of something sinful, and the nature of their conditions is that my daughter, almost certainly, will never be aware of the concept of sin to 'earn' anything from her behaviour in life.

What is the point of God creating these children to suffer to no good end?

O.