Theodicy: A Neglected Aspect of the Psychology of Religion

Abstract

This study was concerned with lay explanations about the problems of evil, and so with theodicy. More than 100 subjects completed a six-part question- naire on human suffering in which they were presented with 15 possible ex- planations for the outcomes of five events-one concerning suffering in general and the others referring to specific instances of human suffering as a result of natural or manmade disasters that produced one or many deaths (and were therefore assumed to be less or more serious). Results showed that the explanations for evil can be classified as natural, theological, or due to human ignorance and that they depend on the nature of the event to be explained (involving its type and severity) and on the factors associated with an individual's religious alignments and the importance of religion in his or her life. These results are discussed in terms of attributional accounts of the re- sponsibility for evil.