'Why does God allow suffering?'

I'd say it's more that a hypothetical God would not see things the way that people do. We are approaching this from an animal perspective of pain = bad. I'd have to imagine the literal creator of reality as we know it doesn't see things through a purely human lens. 

I prefer to look at the idea of God as nature/the universe itself. Suffering is a natural part of it. We ascribe meaning to the suffering that isn't inherently there. Then we get confused and scared and hurt and ask our projected understanding of a "God" why.