Philosophy Compass 10/5 (2015): 345–353, 10.1111/phc3.12207 Why do we Suffer? Buddhism and the Problem of Evil Sebastian Gäb * University of Trier Abstract This paper explains the Buddhist concept of suffering (dukkha) and its relation to the Christian problem of evil. Although there is no problem of evil in Buddhism, the Buddhist understanding of the origin and causes of suffering will help us to find new approaches to the problem of evil. More specifically, I argue (1) that the concept of evil can be interpreted in terms of dukkha; (2) that the existence of suffering or dukkha is necessarily inevitable for finite beings, given the metaphysical structure of the world and our- selves; and (3) that this reasoning can be interpreted as a defense against the problem of evil. 1. Preliminary Remarks The title of this paper may seem a little surprising: why should Buddhism be concerned with the problem of evil? After all, the problem of evil is the problem of how to reconcile the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good God with the presence of evil in the world. But such a problem simply does not exist in Buddhism. The reason why there is no such problem is that Buddhism denies the existence of a being comparable to the Christian God. Now, to be sure, Buddhism is not really an atheist religion. The traditional Indian Buddhist conception of the universe comprises six realms of being, one of which is the realm of gods. But though these gods enjoy an exceptionally happy life and will live for a very long time (millions of years), 1 they are not immortal and are still part of the cycle of rebirths. Their happiness results from good karma accumulated in earlier lives, but once these karmic benefits are consumed, they will die and be reborn like everyone else. So although there are gods in Buddhism (or at least in most Buddhist traditions), these gods are part of the world (in the broadest sense of the word). They do not transcend it; they are still subject to its laws. And, most importantly, they are not creators of this world. They cannot be held responsible for the existence of evil in the world, because the world is not their creation. So there cannot be something like the problem of evil in Buddhism, just because nobody is ultimately responsible for its existence. But then what has Buddhism got to do with the problem of evil? The answer is that both are concerned with the problem of suffering. Buddhism and Christianity both try to explain why there is suffering in the world, although their explanations are quite different. The idea of this paper is to build a bridge between these two explanations. I will give an account of the Buddhist conception of the origin and nature of suffering and then connect this to the Christian problem of evil. I will also sketch something that might be called a ‘Buddhist solution’ to the problem of evil, which means an attempt to take the Buddhist reasoning from its native intellectual tradition and to apply it to the problem of evil. My tacit assumption is that Buddhist philosophy should primarily be regarded as a kind of philosophy, and insofar as it is philosophy, it may have some valuable insights to offer even to those who are not Buddhists themselves. So I am not trying to reconcile or compare Buddhist and Christian ideas. Rather, I am trying to find a link between two intellectual traditions in order to see if bringing them together might help us develop a new approach to an old problem. © 2015 The Author(s) Philosophy Compass © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd