Does God Love the World?

If God created all things, then God created evil too, as well as sickness, poverty, and all the things we consider bad in our world. If not, then God would not be omnipotent, but just would be the one who "set things into motion, and let the bad things happen without interfering."

One of the hardest things for the non-Christian to grasp is this concept that God, who is supposed to BE love, allows such bad things to happen in the world, and yet has the power to easily stop them.

If you were in total power over an object of your love, say a pet turtle, for example, and you saw him shell-flipped upside down baking in the sun, you would help him, wouldn't you? Why doesn't God just fix all the suffering?

Why does God let bad things happen in the world? Did all the victims of the tsunami deserve their fates? Is God punishing bad people by allowing harm to come to them? If God cannot be persuaded to fight off evil and wrongdoing, then why bother praying for it, or even caring at all about other people?

I'd like the audience (if they're still around) to chime in with thoughts and perspectives of how can a good God allow such rottenness in the world, and how is this to give us hope?