The benefits of atheism

Susan Jacoby has an interesting op-ed at the NYT. Here's an excerpt:

When I try to help a loved one losing his mind to Alzheimer’s, when I see homeless people shivering in the wake of a deadly storm, when the news media bring me almost obscenely close to the raw grief of bereft parents, I do not have to ask, as all people of faith must, why an all-powerful, all-good God allows such things to happen. 

Go read it. It's really good.