That was why I questioned god at 12 and denounced him at 16. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust show us how no existing god exists.

The God depicted in the original Old Testament. He's utterly evil.

It either disproves the existence of God, or it proves that God isn't benevolent. "It's his plan" just sets off my bullshit meter.

There is no way one could make a case for the Abrahamic god to be benevolent. (IMHO)

Polytheists find it easy to assign evil to some Gods and good to others. Monotheists originally tried to sell the one God concept without an explanation for the bad stuff that happens. It didn't work out so well for them, so they had to create Satan and Hell to maintain the suspension of disbelief required for their compliance and complicity in the religion in question. So I think the bad stuff does disprove the existence of any super beings. If religion was true, it wouldn't need to evolve its explanations to entice believers.

Driving to work about a decade ago a kitten fell out the back of a pickup truck on I-55.
I pulled over to the shoulder and drove against traffic in the grass along the shoulder to where the kitten had run... as I got closer... the kitten ran back into traffic... a cement truck with those broad wheels was the last thing I saw before the kitten was no more.
That was the day I said "FUCK YOU" to this "so-called GOD".
Have always doubted God's existence... that moment pretty much proved to me there was no God...

The nature of a god should probably be beyond the reach of mere mortal conception, right? I mean, god could be just like joe down the street, he's a pretty good guy, or maybe the pope, but which one? I know that my suffering has led to happiness and vice versa. Utopia is a special kind of hell. Be happy or else.

This is the problem of evil that so many theists try to explain away. The only explanation I've ever heard that bordered on reasonable was from a Jewish rabbi who made no claim that God is omnipotent or omniscient, although I think that calls into question the wisdom and goodness of such a being who would be gambling with the lives of his creation, knowing that suffering would be a likely consequence yet for whatever reason decided to proceed with creation. I also heard an atheist, maybe Matt Dillahunty, explain why he didn't like the argument that the world isn't perfect so therefore God can't exist — the idea being that this might not be a perfect world, but the argument could be made that it's the most perfect world that we could exist in. I guess that borders on the idea that God isn't 100% omnipotent, too, though then we're getting pretty far down the rabbit hole on issues of self-contradictory propositions that even an all-powerful being couldn't violate (e.g., creating a square circle, whose definitions are mutually exclusive).

The problem of evil doesn't really invalidate the Christian conception of god.

It could be argued that if there is a God, he lets us suffer to learn to be better people and not waste our time here. But I don't believe a God would allow innocent children to be harmed so senselessly as we see these days.

The explanation involves having been granted Freewill.
Natural disasters, accidents and accidental deaths, aside from predation, happen in non-human animals too. What? A coincidence?

You can't make a case for such a benevolent god.

It's good to know what the other guy is going to say but this is one argument I'd be on the against side.

if there was no war, no cancer, no 'trials and tribulations', what type of people would we be but extinct from overpopulation and before that extinction, just cows grazing? I hear all this 'bad things happen so it can't exist' stuff...that is such an odd concept. I don't have faith, that is the only reason I do not 'believe' in a god. Also why I do not 'not' believe in a god. It is outside of my paradigm of existence. But suffering, and unhappiness and 'bad things happen' would probably reinforce my belief if I were a believer. Because the opposite is also true, and without these miseries, we would have no happiness. We are defined by our hardships.

We earned whatever punishment we receive.

Maybe a benevolent god without any power?

God is malevolent and depraved, not benevolent.

All life is suffering and they get to check out earlier? Aside from that, I've got nothing.

It is not monstrous enough to have a god that does not care. The monsters are among us. Every computer that has an IP address, every phone, every digital transmission of any sort, is monitored. The government (i.e. every global governing entity) has access to everyone. They could swoop in and get rid of every sick, twisted freak out there. No more evil acts. But what if it is those evil bastards that define us?

Satan. The old scapegoat cop-out. But that clearly shows that Satan has more power than God, or that God just doesn't care or bother to intervine, so he's just an asshole. Sorry, even if this were true, God still created Satan and evil in the first place. Thus, God is the true source of evil. Actually, the gnostics believed just that. Jehovah/Yahweh/Yaldabaoth "the Lord of this World" is the Devil in disguise. Easy way to explain it all: the creator is actually evil, not good. Without the fear of Hell (and the promise of salvation from this punishment) Christianity is pointless. It is all based on exploiting our natural fear of death.