On The Debate about the Theory of Karma as a Solution to the Problem of Evil

Abstract

This article’s purpose is to evaluate the recent debate, which took place in Philosophy East and West about the adequacy of the theory of karma and rebirth as solution to the problem of evil. More specifically, I shall try to show how the view on the concept of a supremely good God in Indian religious traditions adopted by the debaters distorts the course of the debate in such a way that questions foreign to the original purpose of analyzing the theory of karma as a theodicy are took into consideration. Evidence for that is that out of the six problems, which supposedly threaten the adequacy of the theory of karma as a solution to the problem of evil, three are simply not questions which a theodicy had the obligation to answer. I shall also try to show how the over-abstracted version the theory of karma used gives rise also to pseudo-problems