Theodicy and Other Faiths

Theodicy and Other Faiths

The problem of evil is not exclusively a Christian or Western philosophical concern. Every religious tradition that affirms some form of divine goodness, cosmic justice, or ultimate meaning must grapple with the reality of suffering. This lesson examines how Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam approach the problem of evil and suffering, and considers how these perspectives compare with the Western philosophical theodicies studied elsewhere in this course. For AQA A-Level Religious Studies, an awareness of diverse perspectives enriches evaluation and demonstrates sophisticated engagement with the topic.

Hinduism: Karma and Samsara

Hindu approaches to suffering are grounded in the interconnected doctrines of karma, samsara (the cycle of rebirth), and moksha (liberation):

• Karma is the moral law of cause and effect. Every action — good or bad — produces consequences that affect the agent either in this life or in a future life. Suffering in this life may be the result of bad actions (papa karma) committed in a previous existence. Karma is not a system of divine punishment but an impersonal law built into the structure of reality, comparable to a natural law like gravity.
• Samsara is the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The soul (atman) is reborn repeatedly, accumulating karma through each life. The circumstances of each rebirth — including suffering — are determined by the accumulated karma of previous lives.
• Moksha is liberation from the cycle of samsara. Through spiritual practice, moral action, devotion to God, or the pursuit of knowledge, the soul can achieve liberation from the cycle of rebirth and the suffering it entails.

The karmic framework provides a comprehensive explanation for suffering: all suffering is the consequence of past actions, whether in this life or a previous one. No suffering is truly gratuitous or meaningless — it is always the lawful consequence of previous moral choices. This addresses the problem of apparently unjust suffering (why do innocent children suffer?) by denying that anyone is truly “innocent” in the relevant sense: the child who suffers is bearing the consequences of actions performed in a previous life.

Criticisms of the Karmic Approach

• Moral concerns: The karmic explanation of suffering can lead to victim-blaming. If a child is born with a disability, the karmic framework implies that the child is bearing the consequences of sins committed in a previous life. This can be used to justify social inequalities (including the caste system) by presenting them as morally deserved consequences of past actions.
• Unfalsifiability: Since karma operates across multiple lifetimes, its effects cannot be empirically verified. The claim that suffering is always the result of past karma is unfalsifiable — any apparent counter-example can be explained by appealing to unknown actions in a previous life.
• The origin problem: If suffering is caused by bad karma, and bad karma is caused by previous bad actions, what caused the very first bad action? The karmic chain seems to require an infinite regress. Some Hindu thinkers respond that the cycle of samsara has no beginning — it is anadi (beginningless) — but this raises questions about whether an actually infinite series of past events is coherent.
• The problem of natural evil: While karma can explain suffering that befalls individuals (as consequences of their past actions), it is less clear how it explains large-scale natural disasters that affect thousands or millions of people. Are all victims of a tsunami bearing the consequences of similar karma?

The Bhagavad Gita and Divine Purpose

The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important Hindu scriptures, addresses suffering through the dialogue between the warrior prince Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna (an avatar of the god Vishnu). Arjuna is distressed at the prospect of killing his kinsmen in battle. Krishna responds by teaching that:

• The atman (soul) is eternal and indestructible — death is merely the shedding of the body: “As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones” (Gita 2:22)
• One should perform one’s duty (dharma) without attachment to the results — nishkama karma (selfless action)
• Suffering in the material world is ultimately illusory from the perspective of the eternal soul
• Devotion to God (bhakti) is the path to liberation from suffering

Buddhism: Dukkha and the Four Noble Truths

Buddhism approaches suffering through a fundamentally different framework from Western theism. The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, c. 563–483 BCE) did not attempt to explain why God permits suffering — indeed, the Buddha was notably silent on questions about God’s existence. Instead, Buddhism analyses suffering as a universal feature of existence and prescribes a practical path for its cessation.

The Four Noble Truths constitute the core of the Buddha’s teaching: