Vol VII, Issue 4 Date of Publication: October 28, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2022.036

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Public health and Christian theism in Africa: An approach to evil and religious belief in the afterlife

Luís Cordeiro-Rodrigues
Abstract:
Religious beliefs may significantly impact the effectiveness of health policies. In this article, I analyse how Christian theistic beliefs about evil and suffering, in connection with belief in the afterlife, have unreasonable ethical implications in the context of African epistemologies. Further, I contend that such Christian theistic beliefs have a negative impact on health policies, especially during the current pandemic. They prescribe one-size-fits-all approaches, which neglect contextual issues in addressing the pandemic. They also encourage passivity and neglect in the face of suffering. I then offer an alternative inspired by Afro-communitarianism, which I argue is convincing. Given that the theistic view is morally indefensible, I contend that it cannot be a good explanation of the problem of evil.


Copyright and license
©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2022: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0),
which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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