One commentator has written that: The problem of evil is a main concern of theodicy and as important and interesting as an exploration into the area of theodicy is – I have a different focus. Theism, however, must be concerned with the problem of evil. Clearly, if God does not exist then evil (if accepted to be real) requires no explanation and if there are multiple gods or eternal principles, evil can be explained as the result of a conflict amongst them. The questions of whether evil is a fundamental to the nature of man or not, or whether evil acts are interconnected or not, are cast aside and not to be taken seriously in a postmodern world.ĭespite the problems of postmodernism, the problem of evil has long haunted philosophers and theologians of theistic persuasion. Evil, therefore, is left for the theologian, clergyman or naïve to worry about. The death of God, within this context, refers to the death of all absolute values and postmodernism teaches that immutable truths – those fixed for time and eternity – do not exist. God is dead, and therefore all value structures have collapsed. Indeed, Nietzsche’s famous claim that ‘God is dead’ epitomises that which is championed by postmodernism. Nothing, therefore, can be adequately explained by any sort of theory, idea, or meta-narrative. Postmodernism believes that everything is relative, and that the very fabric of reality is constructed by political, social and historical perceptions. However, with the coming of the postmodern age, so too came a rejection of such ideals. Goodness and Evil were two concepts widely accepted for centuries and there were those who lived their lives in accordance with this fundamental belief. “replace the ‘unscientific’ term ‘evil’ with the idea of ‘empathy erosion’: ‘People said to be cruel or evil are simply at one extreme of the empathy spectrum,’ he writes.” (Carlisle, 2012)Įvil, it seems, is not a phenomenon worth any genuine research. For example, in an article on the Cambridge psychopathology professor Baron-Cohen, he is quoted of having said the following when proposing a new theory on human cruelty: The notion of ‘evil’ is a non-starter as an intellectual topic. People nowadays do not seem to take the concept of ‘evil’ very seriously, least of all amongst academic circles.
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