How do religious people respond to different types of evil?

Answer 1

For a theological overview of evil, read the first few paragraphs; for specific examples of how religious people deal with evil in the world, skip about halfway down. All of this assumes that we know, can identify, and can agree on what evil is.

The problem of evil, which points out the inconsistency between the idea of an omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnibenevolent (perfectly good) being and the existence of evil in the world, is a fundamental one for theologists.

In Christianity, there are two official systems of explanation, called 'Theodicies'. The first, called the 'Augustinian Theodicy', says that evil is necessary so that people can have free will; without this, we would be like robots and life would have no meaning. The second, called the 'Irenaean Theodicy', says that evil is necessary to allow us to grow and develop as people.

In addition to these, there are several unofficial theodicies, including 'Process Theodicy', which says that God is not omnipotent but is limited by the world and is doing the best He can, and an explanation offered by the philosopher Leibniz, who argued that, since God is perfectly good, we are, in fact, living in the best of all possible worlds, and that some ineffable (unknowable) factor prevents it from being what we would consider 'perfect'.

One need not believe in God to be religious, however; Buddhists believe that evil is caused by human desires, and that only by giving these up can people reach enlightenment and the world be made better.

If your question was, as I've begun to suspect after having written all of this, of a more practical nature, then read on.

Religious people have, in many ways (and certainly from their point of view) several advantages over secular and non-religious people in the way that they can deal with evil. Firstly, they have an objective (real, not dependent on anything else) standard and framework of morality and personal conduct they can turn to as a guide and argument against evil. Secondly, when evil is being perpetrated against them, religion and belief can provide inner strength and comfort to stand up to it.

If a religious person is truly religious, then their response to evil should be to fight it wherever possible, and by whatever means necessary; this is a central tenet (belief) of most religions.