I don't believe that all suffering is necessary, and I wouldn't need such a belief in order to believe in God. As I said, the problem of evil has never been much of a sticking point for me. I believe that God exists because reason dictates that He must. If you want an example, Aquinas' argument from motion is the most clear and convincing for me. But if you want to bring up things like children being raped, that is a reflection on man's choices. It's not necessary at all. It is a result of free will. As I said in my post, the problem of evils that result of man's choices is pretty easy to understand. That's why I didn't spend much time on it, and instead focused more on the harder question of evils that occur outside our control. Do you really not grasp the idea that God gives us free will in order to make moral choices possible, and that means that people have the ability to choose to do evil things like rape children? The fact that people choose this is no argument against God at all.