"The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
 decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
 sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are
 running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being
 devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying
 of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time
 of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the
 population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored.

 In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and
 genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are
 going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any
 justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should
 expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good,
 nothing but pitiless indifference."
           [Richard Dawkins in "God's Utility Function,"
            Scientific American, November 1995, p. 85.]