Gnostics did some pretty crazy jumps to deal with the problem of evil. They eventually decided that the old testament God was actually the devil that Jesus was trying to save them from. A creator God that trapped souls in the hell scape of reality.
Whenever someone tries to proselytise you, just tell them why would a benevolent god test you by killing your family member who hasn't done anything wrong? A friend of mine, whose father passed away from cancer when my friend was nine years old, said this to a Mormon missionary. And the missionary was stumped to this questioning.