Explaining Evil in the Biosphere: Assessing Some Evolutionary Theodicies for Muslim Theists

Abstract

The problem of evil is one of the most difficult and protracted problems for the trio of Abrahamic faiths that uphold the classical conception of an “omni‐competent God”—omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. In its standard formulation in the literature, the existence or character of God is brought into direct contention with the existence of evil. One subset of this problem, reinvigorated by recent discussions within the intersection between the philosophy of religion and philosophy of science, is the evolutionary problem of evil or the “Darwinian problem of evil.” This article analyzes this subset of the evolutionary problem of evil hitherto unexplored in any depth within contemporary Islamic theology and proposes some possible evolutionary theodicies that Muslim theists can utilize based on core doctrines and other precepts of the Qur’ān as well as ideas developed within contemporary evolutionary theism and environmental ethics. In this way, the article offers a contribution to the currently small but growing body of theodicy literature within contemporary Islamic ethics and environmentalism.