Comment 25 by godzillatemple

The question as to "why is nature so cruel" only makes sense when asked in response to an assertion by theists that nature was created by a loving and omnipotent god. Without the assertion that there is a loving god who created everything and designed it to be exactly the way it is, nobody would need to "make a moral judgement that the world is 'bad.'" The world would just be the way it was, with no value judgment attached to it.

Well....no....that's my whole point. You have to have made an 'a priori' moral judgement that the universe is a rather cruel sort of place, before you can bring any God to trial on a charge of incompetency or downright neglect. It's no different to the sense in which a real life law has to exist first before one can charge anyone with violating it. So in fact you have the cart before the horse.

So one has already made the moral judgement that the world is a cruel place.....without any reference whatever to God.

That's not a bad position to be in at all, because it demonstrates that morality preceded the concept of God. This was precisely the source of Dostoevsky's 'trial of God' argument.