Why does God allow bad things to happen?

I find it interesting that people often bring this topic up when arguing that there is no God.  Although it is a very valid question, people do not take the time to really think about the answer.  The simple answer is that God did not want it to be this way.  He wanted us to be in constant communion with Him and to be able to experience the world in the perfect way that He made it.  Along with this, because He loves us so much, he allowed us to have free will/choice.  Adam and Eve abused this, and sinned, and thus sin came into the world.  As sin came into the world, so did all the negative consequences that came with it.  God never wanted to allow bad things to happen, but because we abused the gift of our free will/choice, we brought sin into the world and thus all the bad things that come with it.  It is not God's fault that bad things happen, it is ours. 

This helps me put into perspective why God allows bad things to happen.  It is because He loves us enough to give us free choice.  He could have created this world and made us all believe in Him and serve Him like robots, but that would not be love.  Just like it would not be love if I robotically loved my wife out of obligation, or being forced to do so.  God wants to have a relationship with us that is real and meaningful.  So when we ask ourselves, "why did God allow that little girl to be molested", it is for the same reason that He allowed us to curse out the "jerk" who cut us off on the way to work this morning.  And it is also for the same reason that He allowed us to help the needy and sick around us, and to return the evil around us with good.  He loves us enough to give each human being the choice of how they are going ot act in each situation and how they are going to live their lives.  Unfortunately many people are going to choose to do evil, and because of that many terrible things are going to happen in this world, and therefore bad things are going to happen, and they are even going to happen to good people.  Is this fair, not at all, but they are the consequences of our sins.  God loves us enough to give us free choice, so it's not His fault that bad things happen, it has always been our own.