Why the Problem of Evil Might not be a Problem after all in African Philosophy of Religion

Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11 (1):27-40 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

For decades, the problem of evil has occupied a centre stage in the Western philosophical discourse of the existence of God. The problem centres on the unlikelihood to reconcile the existence of an absolute and morally perfect God with the evidence of evil in the universe. This is the evidential problem of evil that has been a source of dispute among theists, atheists, agnostics, and sceptics. There seems to be no end to this dispute, making the problem of evil a perennial one in Western Philosophy of Religion. In this essay, I will contribute to this discourse from an African perspective. This essay, therefore, explores the evidential problem of evil within the African philosophy of religion. I argue that it is unlikely for the evidential problem of evil to be a problem in African philosophy of religion. I invoke an Ejima-based argument to support this claim. I conceptualize the Igbo word Ejima to metaphysically mean the inevitable coexistence of two opposite variables as complements to argue that God could be both good and evil within the African Traditional Religion, which explains why good and evil exist in the universe.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,853

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Problem with Evil.Paul A. Macdonald & Joel Brown - 2017 - Philosophia Christi 19 (1):59-81.
The Hiddenness Problem and the Problem of Evil.J. L. Schellenberg - 2010 - Faith and Philosophy 27 (1):45-60.
The Problem of Problems.Aryeh Siegel - 1981 - ReVISION - A Journal of Consciousness and Change 4 (2):32-39.
Why is The Problem of Evil a Problem?Ben Gibran - 2009 - The Philosopher 97 (1).
Some Thoughts on the Logical Aspects of the Problem of Evil.Ricardo Sousa Silvestre - 2020 - In Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Benedikt Paul Göcke, Jean-Yves Béziau & Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.), Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion and Philosophy. London, UK: Springer. pp. 121-135.
Pathways Towards a Global Philosophy of Religion: The Problem of Evil from an Intercultural Perspective.Jun Wang & Luís Cordeiro-Rodrigues - 2022 - Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11 (1):197-206.
The evidential problem of evil.Nickn D. Trakakis - 2005 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Augustine, Ancestors and the Problem of Evil: African Religions, the Donatists, and the African Manichees.Wei Hua - 2022 - Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11 (1):131-138.
Why do we Suffer? Buddhism and the Problem of Evil.Sebastian Gäb - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (5):345-353.
Evidential Problem of Evil, The.Nick Trakakis - forthcoming - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Problem of Evil.Eleonore Stump - 1985 - Faith and Philosophy 2 (4):392-423.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-04-11

Downloads
30 (#532,918)

6 months
13 (#194,827)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Amara Esther Chimakonam
University of Johannesburg (PhD)

Citations of this work

African relational ontology, personhood and immutability.Luis Cordeiro-Rodrigues - 2022 - South African Journal of Philosophy 41 (3):306-320.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references