Religious responses to the problem of evil are concerned with reconciling the existence of evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God.[1][2] The problem of evil is acute for monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism whose religion is based on such a God.[3][4] But the question of "why does evil exist?" has also been studied in religions that are non-theistic or polytheistic, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.[5][6]
The problem of evil is formulated as either a logic problem that highlights an inconsistency between some characteristic of God and evil, or as an evidential problem which attempts to show that evidence of evil outweighs evidence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good God.[1][7][2] Evil in most theological discussions is defined in a broad manner as any and all pain and suffering, but religion also uses a narrow definition that says evil involves horrific acts committed by an independent moral agent and does not include all wrongs or harm including that from nature.
- ^ a b The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "The Problem of Evil", Michael Tooley
- ^ a b The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "The Evidential Problem of Evil", Nick Trakakis
- ^ Problem of Evil, Paul Brians, Washington State University
- ^ Stephen D. O'Leary (1998). Arguing the Apocalypse. Oxford University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-19-535296-2., Quote: "As Max Weber notes, however, it is in monotheistic religions that this problem becomes acute."
- ^ Peter Harvey (2013). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37, 141. ISBN 978-0-521-85942-4.
- ^ Arthur Herman, The problem of evil and Indian thought, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-20807537, pp. 5 with Part II and III of the book
- ^ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "The Logical Problem of Evil", James R. Beebe