“Can an Omnipotent, All-Benevolent God be Reconciled with this World of Suffering?”
In my opinion, only if Genesis is literal. In that case, a created being made with a free-will must be able to obtain the consequences of its decisions. God did everything he could to prevent the wrong decision: He clearly explained the choice to his creation. He clearly explained the consequences that would occur from making the wrong choice (“On the day you eat of it, dying you shall die”.) And he clearly gave enough other choices so that idle curiosity or boredom weren’t a factor (“You may eat of ANY tree of the garden except one”). The Genesis account is clear that Eve did not take the forbidden fruit out of curiosity or boredom. She was presented with a challenge (which her pristine, fully-engaged mind would readily have recognized), and that challenge clearly would have led her to the logical conclusion, “either this snake is lying to me, or God is lying to me.” So who did she choose to distrust? God or the snake? The temptation was fair, in that it purely tested her faith in G...