Religion, Animals, and the Problem of Evil: A Decolonial Approach from Relational Ontology

Abstract

The fact that there is animal suffering in the world seems to challenge the existence of God. This is because although we can find plausible reasons for the existence of human suffering (the pursuit of a greater good), it seems that the suffering of animals in the world is gratuitous and serves no function in terms of the pursuit of a greater good. In this article, however, we challenge the idea that animal suffering poses a problem to the existence of God by using an Afro-communitarian viewpoint. We contend that animal suffering is logically compatible with the existence of God because it can be understood as promoting different forms of social harmony. In particular, animal suffering can be understood as an enabler for being a subject and/or an object of communion.

Keywords

• animal suffering
• the problem of evil
• Afro-communitarianism
• African philosophy
• animal ethics
• relational ontology