RT Article
T1 Tutuism and the Moral Universe. Comment on Gasser (2021). Animal Suffering, God and Lessons from the Book of Job. Religions 12: 1047
JF Religions
VO 13
IS 3
A1 Cordeiro-Rodrigues, Luís
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1804403407
AB Georg Gasser has recently attempted a new explanation to the problem of animal suffering, i.e., how can a morally perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent God allow the gratuitous suffering of animals? His argument can be interpreted in two ways: (i) creation is amoral and therefore there is no problem of animal suffering; (ii) God’s morality is beyond us and not responsive to humans. In both cases, the problem of animal suffering is, according to Gasser, explained. Grounded on the thought of Desmond Tutu, I contend, however, that both (i) and (ii) imply that God would be immoral, which is an unacceptable implication for Christians. Therefore, Gasser’s explanation fails to solve the problem of suffering. Further, I uphold that if God exists He is necessarily a moral agent and if one wishes to give up such property, then also needs to give up His omnipotence. On top of this, I challenge the idea that there is a naturalistic fallacy in holding a Tutuist conception of God.
K1 African Philosophy of Religion
K1 Desmond Tutu
K1 Georg Gasser
K1 amorality
K1 Animal Suffering
K1 Concepts of God
K1 Gratuitous Evil
K1 Moral Status
K1 Naturalistic Fallacy
K1 The problem of evil
DO 10.3390/rel13030251