"How great is the nothingness of the children of men"

So I try really hard to not be a person who pushes their religion on someone, regardless of what I believe I think people are allowed to choose for themselves what they do and do not believe.
As I am sure some of you know, I am an extremely religious person, however liberal. I do get a few people asking me, "Well, if God exists, why does he allow young people to die? Why does he let wars happen? Blah blah blah."
I honestly consider this extremely close-minded. People really just don't understand that it doesn't work like that. In explaining the reasoning behind these evils, people usually come up with some more prodding questions and it becomes an all out battle between Evolution and Creationism (even though I believe evolution can exist in the presence of God, in fact they coincide with each other really well if you actually sit and think about it).
Anyways, I was reading my scriptures today in Helaman 12, which just happens to be amazing scripture on this topic, and I came across this in verse 3: "And thus we see that except The Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror... They will not remember him." So basically this is saying that unless God allows death and war and horrible things to happen, we will always be prideful, always "... Quick to be lifted up in pride" and "...Slow to walk in (God's) wisdom" (v5).
Don't forget that good and evil are opposites, meaning that one cannot exist without the other. Much like day and night, good cannot come without corruptness and vise-versa.
Among the many reasons I think God tests us, this is a huge one. And I know this post probably did nothing for the people looking for answers, but I hope you at least leave this blog post being more open minded when it comes to religion. Just remember that you choose what YOU believe, and if you're atheist or catholic or whatever, you can never force someone to believe something they do not.
Sorry this post was all over the place. Thanks for dealing with all of my scattered thoughts.