It's just one indication against a benevolent creator. The whole of nature is vicious. Have you ever watched a nature programme? Ever seen lions, cheetahs, etc, hunt and eat their prey; they don't die quickly - they get eaten slowly.
Notice that you are blaming God for what you don't like. Who you ought to blame is the humans who disobey God. The human was given a task to perform on earth:
28 Then God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.
But what has man turned his effort toward? Wealth and power, essentially greed. So while we are all running the rat race trying to ammas material goods, certain aspects of nature are left to run wild in ways that you and I don't like.
I want to show you some prophecy of the bible, maybe you have not read it yet, and keep in mind that God does know what the future holds so His words are reliable.
Isaiah 11:6-9
New Living Translation (NLT)
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;
the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.
The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,
and a little child will lead them all.
7 The cow will graze near the bear.
The cub and the calf will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
There is also another similar promise, this time by the mouth of Jesus:
Revelation 21
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, Look, Gods home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.
The message from these passages is that God is indeed benevolent. The message you are giving me is that you prefer benevolence to violence. So I ask you the question, since violence is foreign to your nature:
What personality trait do you think violence arises from?
There surely must have been a better way to test Adam and Eve's capacity for free will.
My understanding of the story leads me to believe that it is our capacity for free will being tested. Adam and Eve are long gone, we can't dwell upon their mistakes for the rest of time. There is a saying "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it". All the stories in the bible are meant to give us insight and wisdom.
If you refuse to listen to the story, who do you blame for the lack of insight and wisdom?
Jesus promoted a clear message summarized as the golden rule, which He taught by repentance: learning how to conquer sin. The eventual result is to be a holy nation, but we don't see this happening to everyone's full capacity, and that is why sin reigns in our world.
We do have the capacity to tame nature and promote the golden rule throughout the world, but because of the weakness of the human nature, our efforts are not spent doing God's will, it is spent on self-serving ambitions. So much of the world's capacity is wasted by mankind's greed, that if Jesus was enthroned on everyone's heart the world would be transformed within a lifetime. It's a lot to ask for, I guess that is why the revelation shows angels getting involved and the saints being resurrected to government.
