1. Do you believe in free will? I do. In fact I believe God holds the free will of man of such respect that He will not force man to obey His will. Rather God calls man to Him, entices us to choose Him, pleads for us to obey Him, but ultimately leaves the issue of obedience to our choice. Part of the main purpose of life is to experience the challenges of Earth life, to experience good form evil, and to learn to choose good from evil, to choose Him, Our Father, and to turn away form sin. But in order to have that legitimate choice, to use our free will for good, we have to have the power to use it for evil, because if you only have one choice, OBEY!, then you really have no choice at all. God is not responsible for evil, nor for do man's evil actions mean God does not love us. The only thing man's evil shows is that we are not using our agency of choice well. But you also seem to focus only on the great evils of mankind, and ignore the overwhelming incredible good. People volunteer to help one another, serve each other, feed the homeless, care for the sick, administer to the needy, and so much more everyday in front of you. Do not be blind to the incredible good God inspires in mankind as well.
You talk about the absence of a loving God. Perhaps you do not understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Prophet Alma teaches us that Christ would, "go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:11-12, Book of Mormon) What this means is that Jesus Christ, in addition to suffering for our individual sins also suffered for every individual sickness, weakness, and pain we would ever have, as individuals. That means when someone is raped, Christ suffered their exact pain. When someone has AIDS, He knows their exact pain, not just the generic pain of having AIDS. From the stubbing of your toe to the Holocaust and evil things you cannot even think of, he knows them for each sufferer as if He were them. He took upon Himself our pains so that He would know how to succor us perfectly, so that He could administer to those pains and through His infinite power heal those wounds completely and utterly, without even the "emotional scar". Just as Christ is the Healer of Bodies He is also the Healer of The Soul.
2. Actually I am not making assumptions. Peter gives us a clear way to understand the scriptures. He says, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:20-21) So the scriptures are of no private authoritative interpretation (meaning that while can certainly find personal applicability in a scripture, your private understanding is not automatically the definitive meaning of that scripture). This is because the scripture, and prophecy, did not come by the private will of any man, but was revealed to them by the power of The Holy Ghost. If you want to understand a scripture, you must have the Holy Ghost and if you want a true authoritative meaning of a scripture it can only come by one of those who has the will of God revealed to them by the Holy Ghost. These men are called prophets. It is my testimony to you that God speaks today, calls prophets just as He did in old, and gives us guidance for modern life. The Prophet Joseph Smith was called by God and Jesus Christ personally in 1820, and since him there and been 16 modern Prophets and successive modern Apostles with the power and authority to speak for in teh name of God, receiving direct revelation from on High.
3. A fact? Really? I disagree. I am a biological organism, surely. But only in the most generic sense am I an "animal". Humanity is much more than "just an animal", for good or bad. A better truth is that I am a mortal spiritual son of God, fleshy and imperfect. I share many common traits with all other fleshy mortal creations, but by spirit comes from God and I am destined for much more than the "animals."
