...as opposed to? ----- Someone who is not real? 
I would suggest that Sassy's question calls into question if the Christian God is real.
How many truly devout Christian families follow their God's rules to the letter and then have one of thier number hit by a bus and left in a vegetative state or hit with a (sometimes very) long term very unpleasant illness that takes X number of years to kill them?
If their God is real would he repay the familiy's good with the evil of these evil horrors,
