The Problem of Evil

• The word theodicy derives from the Greek words

Θεός Τheos and δίκη dikē.

• "God" + "Justice"
• http://youtu.be/qqzF2aRVJAc Elie Wiesel
  • we must remember
  • the challenge

What is the Problem of Evil?

• actually a cluster of "problems" related to understanding Sacred reality
• Why does good fortune turn to bad? (Psalms)
• Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked flourish? (Hindu)

Logical dilemma

• In religious traditions that stress the power and goodness of one God who rules over all creation, the existence of evil presents a logical dilemma.

• If God is good and powerful, what is the nature of evil?
• If God could prevent evil but does not, can God be good?
• On the other hand, if God is good but cannot prevent evil, can God be powerful?

Problem of Evil (Christianity)

We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old; you with your own hand drove out the nations. . . . Yet you have rejected us and abased us, and have not gone out with our armies. You made us turn back from the foe, and our enemies have gotten spoil. (Psalm 44:12a, 910)

Problem of Evil Hinduism

The world is so confused and out of joint, why does Brahma not set it straight? If he is master of the whole world, Brahma, lord of the many beings born, why in the whole world did he ordain misfortune? Why did he not make the whole world happy? . . .Why did he make the world with deception, lies, and excess, with injustice?

Theodicy

• God is all-merciful. God is all-powerful. God is perfect-justice.
• Any 2 of these can be held at the same time - but not all 3
• even non-theists must explain the presence of evil & suffering (cf. e.g. a psychologists perspective: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/X0038E2E2/

The Holocaust: These were highly educated people - The people of Beethoven - The people of Luther

For Jews the challenge of a God of history, with a plan – for Christians: Where was Christ?

The Holocaust (Shoah)

• In the modern West, no single experience raises the questions associated with the problem of evil with greater power than the Holocaust.
• The Holocaust illustrates the general point of how religious people identify evil in terms of a contradiction between the facts of experience and the reality of the sacred.
• The Holocaust challenges some of the central affirmations of Jewish and Christian faith.

4 Responses to the Problem of Evil

1. Karma
2. Consolation of Promise
3. Appeal to Sovereignty
4. Dualism

Responses to the Problem of Evil: Karma

Evil and Karma: The Indian Context

Karma, signifies the moral weight of one’s actions people get what they deserve (at least over the long haul)

Buddhist Perspective on Evil

• Evil is located in the self, with its passions and desires. cruelty & pain are not simply luck of the draw
• not the will of God
• solution to the problem of evil depends on each individual

Reponses to the Problem of Evil: Consolation

The Consolation of Promise

• At some future time, evil will be overcome, justice will be satisfied, and the point of suffering will be made clear.
• Such a response uses the language of promise, offering consolation and hope to those currently suffering.
• Just how or when the promise will be fulfilled is a matter on which there is a variety of opinions.

Jewish Perspective on Evil

• Jews wait for a Messiah who is yet to come.
• When the anointed one arrives, he will reestablish the nation of Israel and will rule the other nations with a rod of iron.
• some Orthodox groups oppose the nation of Israel because the Messiah has not yet come.

Christian Response to Evil

• Christianity holds that the Messiah has come: Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.
• His life, death, and resurrection manifest the promise of God to bring about a peaceable kingdom.
• The work of Jesus is not yet complete, however. For, he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; and his reign will have no end.
• The doctrine of the parousia or the second coming of Christ indicates that the fulfillment of the promise is yet to come.

Muslim Response to Evil

• Islam also embodies the promise theme common to Judaism and Christianity.
• An idea appears in the Islamic tradition that the mahdi will come or appear at the time God decides and will establish the rule of justice and equity on earth.
• Islam also refers to an afterlife in which good will be rewarded, evil punished, and suffering explained.
• Through a Day of Resurrection and Judgment, God will resolve the problem of evil.

Reponses to the Problem of Evil: Appeal to Sovereignty

• The sovereignty appeal finds its power in affirming that, at least from the human standpoint, there are no solutions to the problem of evil.
• The book of Job may be taken as the archetype of the sovereignty response. As such, it has both baffled and comforted believers throughout generations of Jewish and Christian faith.

The Story of Job

• God tests Jobs faith to see if his obedience to God is motivated by his own integrity or desire for personal gain.
• Job rejects the idea that his suffering is for his education or to make him better
• Job also rejects the idea that his suffering is in proportion to some sin he has committed.
• In the end, God claims the wisdom of the creator of all things and Job accepts the finitude of human understanding and the sovereignty of the maker of heaven and earth.

Responses to the Problem of Evil: Dualism

• Evil is the result of a conflict between good and evil powers, both of which share some of the characteristics of sacred reality.
• From the perspective of dualism, God is good but God's sovereignty faces a severe challenge from those powers that do evil in the world.
• Many religious traditions embody elements of dualism, but the best example is in Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrian Response to Evil

• Struggle between Spenta Mainyu (beneficent spirit) and Angra Mainyu (hostile spirit), whose conflict stems from the beginning of all things and continues to the end of time.
• Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu are twins, offspring of the wise lord Ahura Mazda, the creator of all things.
• Ahura Mazdas twins represent the moral choice set before all creatures. Evil comes into the world as a result of wrongful choice, and the proper response is thus to fight against it.

Evaluating Responses to the Problem of Evil

• Are the answers adequate?
• Are the answers logical?
• Are the answers coherent?
• Are the answers psychologically satisfying?
• What are the moral consequences?