How can a good God allow suffering and evil?

This is the question every worldview must answer, not just Christianity. The Christian answer starts with the fact that God created humans with genuine free will, and much suffering flows from the misuse of that freedom (Genesis 3).

But Christianity doesn't stop there. God doesn't merely permit suffering from a distance — He entered it. In Jesus, God experienced betrayal, injustice, torture, and death, and He promises to one day "wipe away every tear" (Revelation 21:4). Suffering is real and painful, but it is not the final word, and it is not meaningless: Romans 8:28 promises God works even painful circumstances toward good for those who love Him.

Importantly, the problem of evil is arguably harder for atheism to answer, since without God there's no objective standard by which to call anything genuinely "evil" in the first place.