iman

Okay, I'll take another shot at it, this time assuming evil exists not as a human construct:

Human beings are an infintessimally small part of the universe. What is good for one species in the universe is often detrimental to another (e.g. what's good for parasites is often bad for their hosts). Furthermore, what's good for the maintenance of the planet is often bad for species (I suppose volcanic eruptions and such are good for planet maintenance - they relieve some sort of geo-whatsit pressure, right?). So, with the universe set up as it is, everything may in fact be for the good - just not great for HUMANS. But why should we tiny unfortunate apes be favored over everything else in the whole damned universe? Our pain may well contribute to the overall good.

Now, COULD the universe have been set up differently? Is this the best of all possible worlds? Who is to say, when we only have a glimpse of one teeny-tiny speck of a speck of the whole? What's is like for the species and rocks and shit on the other side of the universe? This may well be the best that an all-good, all-powerful Big Guy who is, unfortunately, constrained by the bounds of logic could come up with. Tough luck for us hairless apes.

EDIT: I just thought of a much simpler argument using the same basic idea. We assume that the world were set up for us humans, so the existence of leeches and mosquitoes and shit like that is bad, as are the existence of hurricanes and natural other natural disasters. Well, what if the world were set up to benefit paramecium #457 and we humans are just a step in the evolution of that great organism that grew on our eyelids but has now spread to other organisms. Our existence, in God's eyes, was always secondary to the future of that favored organism, and we're no longer necessary. Oh, and all those natural disasters? Paramecia LOVE that shit. They love hurricanes and all that because they fuck like crazy in that weather. We don't like it so much, but fuck us. The world is all good, just not for us apes.