Evil: Western vs Indian Philosophy

Western philosophical theology raises the question if God is so wonderful then why is there evil? The two specific arguments in this theology are: The deductive form and inductive form. In the deductive form God is supposed to eliminate evil and because he doesn’t he is not viewed as all knowing and all powerful or even entirely good. Since evil does exist God’s capabilities are questioned. The inductive form sees the amount of evil in the world and questions God’s existence. God should be doing something to lessen the amount of evil in the world given the qualities we think he possesses. Western philosophical theology questions God’s character.

Indian philosophy looks at God’s existence in a completely different light. God’s abilities are unrelated. They do not look at God’s character, his existence or nature. They look to see if there is universal justice. Indian philosophy does not change based on a theistic or a non theistic philosophy. The main goal for both Indian philosophies is why evil happens without any connection to a person’s moral qualities and their current actions. They look to find out how they can escape the suffering.

There is a distinct difference between the Western philosophical theology and Indian philosophy. The Western way makes it difficult to reconcile the existence of God who is all knowing, loving and benevolent with Evil. How can both exist at the same time? The Indian philosophy makes it much easier to deal with Evil. In Indian Philosophy there is no direct relationship to the existence of God and the laws of Karma. Karma does not require a God.

The one consequence of the law of Karma is that the world was created as a “sporting event”. The creation of the world and the beings in it had no significance to God. Nothing is divine. The second consequence is that God does this without an end in mind or the acts of God are justifiable under the law of karma. Both of these show God is not gracious and