If God is truly a loving God, why is there so much hatred and suffering? Especially things inflicted by “God”, such as natural disasters and disease

So first we should establish that God is a loving God, as it seems that there is some doubt about this.
The easiest way to look at this is the fact that we are alive. We as humans have done nothing to deserve life – in fact we are deserving of death since we all sin. So not only does God allows us to continue to live but he offers us eternal life. This is something that we are so far from being deserving of and the only reasonable explanation of this is that God is loving. (John 3:16)

So then why is there suffering?

In the beginning God created us with free will, he didn’t want robots. If God created us as perfect representation of Him or without choice them we would be robots. It is clear that God wants us to choose him not be forced into it.

At the start of the bible there is a story about the fall of mankind, where God gives a commandment not to eat of one special tree, but says that you can eat anything else that you want. Why would God challenge humans like this if his goal is a perfect world where there is no suffering? Anyway, Eve eats of the fruit of the forbidden tree and gives it to Adam who was with her. (Gen 3) Now there’s a whole study into this story, but the main point is that we went away from what God said to do, we as a human race choose to be selfish and act on what we thought was right rather than what God said was right, and we have been doing this ever since, even though we know the impact and the consequences. Now actions have consequences, and the consequences of sin is death and suffering. (Rom 6:23, Rom 5:12)

So then why is there suffering you ask? Because of our choices, because of our sin.. because of us…
This might seem a bit radical to think that we made this choice as a human race but I ask you, have you ever done anything wrong? Have you ever sinned?
Then its fair to say that we have made the same choice that Eve and Adam made all those years ago and we as a human race and continue to turn our backs on God.

So then where does suffering come from?

In short its comes from our bad choices, we as the human race chose to go against our creator and did what he said not to do, we had no real reason to do this but did it out of selfish motives.

So ultimately suffering is the result of human selfish motives, that’s why the question of “why does god allow suffering?” is such a loaded question, it implies that its God’s fault that there is suffering, that he allows it to continue. This is a wrong sense of entitlement because God gives us everything. When we need to be looking at ourselves, God is following through on what he said those thousands of years ago, if you sin you will die. He sits back and allows humans to make the mistake that we will make, but he is always there if we turn to him not matter how bigger or smaller mess we might be in, he is always there.

We may think in terms of its just a small lie. But God says don’t do these things and live the way I have asked. He understands the impact it has on us, he understands that a small lie can break years of trust, and a breaking of trust can lead to hate and hate can lead to fighting and fighting can lead to death or splits that are never repaired. He understands that humans have egos, he understands that we are full of pride, and he’s given us a book full of wisdom way beyond human knowledge to help us.

The amazing thing about God is that despite us turning our back on him and doing the opposite to he has ask, he wants to work with us, in fact he knew that we were going to mess things up and he makes a plan to show his Grace and awesome love before we do anything.

As far as natural disasters and earthquakes go, we would not be affected by this if we had not sinned. These are things that are part of mortality, mortality a result of sin. We have not experienced immortality and what it is like to not be affected by suffering. This is something really exciting that we have to look forward to when God completes his plan on the Earth in his Kingdom.