In all religious practices around the world, the idea of evil is a significant concern.
The claims that bad deeds result in everlasting punishment have sparked a heated discussion about the evil narrative. There is a strong desire to learn where evil came from in the religious world, what its characteristics are, and where it leads (Peterson and Michael, 21).
The three theological philosophies' perspectives on the issue of evil
According to Hinduism, evil exists.
Hinduism encompasses a variety of religious traditions. Nonetheless, they believe evil to be a product of humanity's failure. In certain instances, evil acts result from cultural injustices that have existed for a long time. Interestingly, some consider the contexts of evil as cyclic and recurring in society, leading to eternal suffering among the people. Karma is a term that the Upanishads use to explain that cycle of evil and its consequences among people in society. Predominantly, they link the present life to the past events in evaluating the concerns of suffering as an element of religious matter.
Evil according to Christianity
Christians postulate that God is the sole creator of everything in the world. However, there is a gap on the link between contexts of creations and the origin of evil. This is because God is not evil and does not associate with the evil in the world according to Christians. However, the origin of evil is traceable to the creation of the angels who were given free will to choose and chose to go against God. Thus, evil is an act of opposing God in the Christian world and is a road to eternal suffering among the perpetrators. This group represents the agents of Satan or Lucifer.
Evil according to Buddhism
Buddhists posit that evil is a continuous event that unfolds in the human society because of the constricting factors in the environments. Suffering and pain continuously form part of human existence. Hence, the explanation on the impacts of pain and suffering may justify the existence of evil in society. several occurrences such as birth and ignorance cause pain to the victims and may highlight the contentions of evils in such communities. Consequently, the statutes of the human mind that illustrate elements of evils often leads to suffering. These include greed, ignorant behaviors, as well as aversions.
The types of theodicies providing an explanation for evil
The theodicy of soul making
The world is a creative work of God that puts humankind in the middle of controversy. This way, evil is an element that gives humankind the opportunity on how to grow in relationship with God. This is because there is a probable existence of good, to represent God, and evil. Consequently, evil allows God to distinguish the soul of men based on the decisions about the actions towards each other in their communities.
Free will theodicy
The explanations portray the presence of the individualistic free will of existence can help to heighten the contextual evil factors in the world. Nonetheless, the world itself presents evil outcomes on human life in nature. Such outcomes may include the occurrences of landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters that threaten the lives of people in the environments. Therefore, the concept illustrates a lucrative ideology that evil is a creational impact of God on the agents. Such fact lies in the contentious possession of rights among people and various agents in such communities.
Freedom of great deeds of evil
The freedom libertarian in executing great harms in many societies explains the concept of evil from the perspective of liberty of choice in the evil actions. The ideology explores the boundaries of individual free will in action towards the world around. This way, the controversy in the contexts of moral and free will plays a major role in defining evil from the perspective of the actions of an individual in the established framework.
Natural laws
This theodicy explains that events in the world normally take a course with relation to regularity. Ideally, such activities on a regular basis follow the laws of nature in society. Thus, the concept of a natural law governing the action of humankind in society, potentially, gives rise to occurrences of natural harm to those individuals. As a result, an individual sustaining the harm of nature is considerably evil in the religious sectors. Evidently, the theodicy explains that the aspect of God’s approval of these laws justifies the means to understanding such concepts of evil in societies.
Why Buddhism is considered rational in relation to evil
The concept of evil in religion demands a rational evaluation from all perspectives. Buddhism explores this concept from a comprehensive understanding that includes the psychological inputs, philosophical reasoning, as well as the scientific rationale in human developments. According to Buddhists, it is not only based on "the holy books" that we can explore the context of evil as a means to suffering since the process of giving birth itself is suffering (Neiman, Susan, 14).
In addition, the application of individual intellects in explaining the concepts of evil incorporates the application of scientific matters as well as the inclusion of the holy contexts of religion. These include referring to the holy books as well as the natural environmental events in society. In conclusion, Buddhism puts together reasons and divine revelations to explore the contexts. Therefore, it becomes more rational in the end as compared to the other traditions.
Work cited
Peterson, Michael L., Ed. The problem of evil: Selected readings. University of Notre Dame Press, 2016.
Neiman, Susan. Evil in modern thought: An alternative history of philosophy. Princeton University Press, 2015.
