Status Updates From The Problem of Evil and Ind...

Ramanuja “God and individual souls are distinct and have existed from eternity.”

“if it is objected that in the beginning there could have been no differences, and the Lord must then be responsible for the differences(good and evil) that came, then we counter- there is no beginning.”

“The Lord has no choice. The cosmic process is automatic...destruction must occur whatever God’s feelings in the matter.”

“The rebirth solution can thus be used to explain and justify the most abominable cruelty.”

“Nearly all Hindus accept the cyclical theory of history and cosmology. Their point is not so much that the creation is good or bad(they don’t say) but that it has to be destroyed.”

“Lila cannot be used to justify the results that follow from the act; Lila merely describes the act”

Creation by Creator: play without purpose (Lila)

“To act without purpose is not to act at all.”

“Brahman cannot be the cause of the world because to cause or create involves motives or purposes and if Brahman has either he is imperfect.”

“All delusion is caused by human ignorance. That ignorance is, caused by human failings in a previous existence.”

“The beginningless response to the golden age assumption”

d’Holbach: “God as the cause of me, and me as the cause of evil, raises moral problems with God that lead immediately to TPE.”

“Why and how does the reincarnating individual first go wrong?”

“...cripples, dwarves and those born deaf or blind are the products of their own past actions...” Christmas Humphreys

Rebirth circle is without beginning

Rebirth solution: (2) “Buddha’s own words imply that one can without gods as helpers or hinderers, work out one’s salvation with diligence because one does it by and for ones’ self.

Rebirth solution: “...there is no sin or doing evil to others as much as doing evil to oneself...in the end the doer is the one who suffers.”

Indian: “... morality becomes essentially personal, private, selfish, where helping others might be to postpone their release from the Karma they need to work off and expiate...” Pakistani

Indian: “There can be no sin in the Augustinian sense as offenses against others, for any evil one does is clearly to one’s own detriment.”

“The world is viewed as completely connected and self-contained cosmos of ethical retribution.”

“That is why the world, the Samsara, is known as Maya that is; not something evil, but something which has to be experienced—Bhoga— for the eventual emancipation of the soul from the thraldom of ignorance or Avidya. From the point of view of the Absolute, Maya does not exist at all.”

“...same conclusion has been reached by many Indian commentators who have also held that evil in the world is mere appearance, illusory, or unreal.”

Bhagavad Gita: “Since all comes from God, that includes evil.”

“Sastri: for those who regard Brahman as maya, there are no future events because there are no real events...future events are not objects of knowledge because there is nothing to know. For many Indian philosophers, god’s lack of omniscience is no real lack.”