That's a really tough one to crack that you bring on the table here Being eaten alive by a wild bear, probably is a worst fate than getting fucked by a pedo. But I digress, and that's not an answer ... Of course, the easy answer would be "because there's no god", and just like that poof, "problem solved!" Now what would be the reason, if the above isn't the right answer ... Maybe one only lives once per "cycle", cycle of boom/burst universe, bing bang cycle, spanning over a timescale so long that we would describe it as "infinity/eternity" if we ever were able to measure it numerically And then it starts all over again, and you're reborn, but this time in a different role, the opposite role, from oppressor to victim, from victim to oppressor, and so on. That would explain why "innocents" get screwed I guess it has to start somewhere then, so... What would that imply? What are "we"? Maybe that's not us being tested here, maybe we're just interfaces, and god is experiencing himself through us That "narrative" would leave rooms for the concept of souls, souls being "bits" of god dispatched in plenty of "interfaces" Do stones have a soul? Or, are there "things" without a soul? If there are things without a soul, then some people might be devoid of one, maybe the "devil" has its share of the creation, all the things without soul belonging to "him", call it matter if you will, mere automatons ... You have banking and shadow banking https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shadow-banking-system.asp Shadow banking being a byproduct of banking activity without being banks, it's like the drop shadow of a building, it's not the building but it exists because there's a building There can't be a hole without borders Is darkness only the mere absence of light? ... Of course I'm speculating here, throwing ideas on top of my head, trying to make sense of it