If there is a god, it takes a special sadist to allow the amount of torment present on earth.
So I prefer to believe there's no higher spirit ravelling in the suffering of all creatures rather than there being a malevolent creator watching with glee as we die a slow, painful death.
I think you could go one step further with this theory and say that humans are not that important at all. I mean, why would we think we are? Because god told us so? Maybe he just said that to account for some variable and left it at that. Hasn't looked back at what we were up to since.
In some distant corner of the universe is a much nicer planet where everyone is living in harmony and peace. We're just the control group :)
When I was religious (I'm not any more) that was something that never actually troubled me. I believed that god was benevolent but that suffering must be necessary in ways that we humans can't conceive of. Who were we to question the grander plan?