Evil and the Retributive Hypothesis

The theistic belief in God as an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent creator of this universe has been an age-old belief of mankind which has had its staunch supporters as well as formidable opponents. The problem of evil has been a major obstacle on the way of theistic belief. Retributive hypothesis is put forward in this book as the most satisfactory, or rather the least unsatisfactory, of all explanations offered to solve the problem of evil in the theistic context. A point which needs to be mentioned in this connection is that belief in God as an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent creator of this universe has been propounded here not as a creed or an article of faith but as a thesis for examination from an enquirerês point of view. The book thus devotes itself mainly to critical examination of a system of belief, viz., the theistic belief. The problems of retributive justice, survival, personal identity, meaning of religious language etc., come under the purview of discussion in course of this critical examination. The book, with its characteristically analytic and critical approach, raises certain interesting issues and tackles them with a freshness of insight, thus making significant contribution to the world of philosophy in general and to the area of Philosophy of Religion in particular.

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