The Paradox of Evil and the Good God: the Igbo Perspective

Abstract

Perhaps of all the problems begging the attention of metaphysical thought, the paradox of evil and the good God is the most worrisome and intractable. This paper undertakes an analytical study of the problem by Igbo philosophers and scholars which reveals that most of them are of the view that any solutions which hanker on the moral ‘will disorders’ of man or the nature of God alone as the cause of evil are one- side and incomprehensible since they neither sufficiently exonerate man nor God from the problem. It is therefore the thrust of this paper that though evil may be linked to God, he is not the proximate cause of it since evil may be part of a rational design for maintaining a perfect universal order. Again, on the grounds that man being a tripartite being his spiritual status drags in the spirits, (gods) in a share of his blames and praises. Consequently, this paper adopts the middle – course view, namely, that man, his personal god and destiny and some other malevolent spirits are the originators of evil in the world. Conclusively, the paper equivocally adds that reason is incapable of comprehending the true nature of evil and the good God enjoining a combined application of faith and the rational faculty in seeking an adequate understanding of the paradox of evil and the good God.