In an unprecedented and sudden
development, the entire world has slowed down. No longer can we blame time or
offer time as an excuse for the intentional and the unintentional aspects we
neglected. Thanks to Covid-19, time is our friend now.
Just as time, uncertainty, worry and
fear are also our constant companions now. Thanks to Covid-19.
It is in this very precarious state
of affairs that we need positive reinforcements to remove confusions and stabilize
our thought process be it in the secular or the spiritual realms of our life.
Knowing where God is in this
situation would resolve much of our uncertainty, worry, and fear.
First, did God create Covid-19 or
did HE design Covid-19?
Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass is the Associate
Professor, Department of Pathology & Immunology and the Associate Professor,
Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis. He describes himself as “a scientist in the Church and a
Christian in science.”1
In a recent debate on God and/or Evolution Dr. Joshua
Swamidass debated Dr. Michael Behe, much renowned for his book Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.
At that debate, Dr. Behe claimed
that viruses are designed by God. In an article entitled Evolution, Design, and COVID-19, Dr. Behe claims the same, “So, do I
think viruses were designed? Yes, I most certainly do! The viruses of which we
are aware — including the coronaviruses, Ebola, and HIV — are exquisitely,
purposively arranged, which is the clear signature of intelligent design….”2
Although God designs viruses, the
changes in the virus that increases its virulence to harm humans is a result of
its interaction with the natural laws of our world, says Dr. Behe, “Certainly,
if we were on a ship in a powerful storm, we might be excused for thinking
storms are bad. But in calmer moments we understand that on balance the ocean
is very good and that, given an ocean and the laws of nature, storms will arise
from time to time. What’s more, we just might get caught in one. In the same
way, most viruses do not affect humans and may well have a positive, necessary
role to play in nature of which we are currently unaware.5 (I would
bet on it.) From time to time a storm arises in the virosphere and affects
humans. But that’s no reason to think either that viruses weren’t designed or
that the designer of viruses isn’t good.”3
Dr. Swamidass reiterates Dr. Behe’s
point, “So, to restate his point: viruses are designed, but when a virus, like
the one causing COVID-19, evolves, we should understand it much like a storm.
The point here, it seems, is that the changes required for the COVID-19 virus
to infect and injure humans arise from the natural operation of the world, not
God’s intended purpose or design. To make this move, Behe is acknowledging some
relative autonomy to creation, that it operates under God’s governance but also
somehow “on its own.”
So the virus is designed, but its
evolution into a disease causing pathogen is not designed.”4
Second, is God evil if HE designed the Coronavirus?
No, says Dr. Behe, “…does that mean
the designer is evil and wants people to suffer? No, not necessarily… I see no
reason why a designer even of such things as viruses should be classified as
bad on that basis alone.”5
Similarly, God created angels even
though HE knew that one rebellious group will reject HIM and cause evil. In a
blog entitled Why Did God Create Satan
Knowing That Satan Would Cause Evil? I wrote:6
First, did God
know that Satan would cause evil? Yes, God would have known all about Satan.
God is all-knowing (Job 37:16; Psalm 139:2–4, 147:5; Proverbs 5:21; Isaiah
46:9-10; 1 John 3:19–20), so God would have definitely known that Satan would
cause evil and disaster in this world.
Second, could
not have God created a world without Satan? Wouldn’t a world without Satan and
evil be a better world than ours? In other words, is our world the best of all
possible worlds?
One of the
great thinkers of 17th and 18th century is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He
proposed that our world is the best of all possible worlds. Leibniz's
proposition was that since God knew all of the infinite possibilities, this
world should be the best of all possible worlds, for God has actualized this
world over the other possible worlds.
Christian
analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga differed from Leibniz by positing that
there cannot be a best world, for one more palm tree or one more morally
righteous person can make any world better. So Plantinga concluded that there
is no such thing as the best world. [Even if God does not create anything, HE
alone will exist as the greatest good (Summum bonum)]. Therefore, God is merely
obligated to create a good world and not a best world.
This world is
a good world, since God has offered freedom to his creation. God has offered
freedom to man to love HIM freely. The same freedom was offered to the angels
as well. Some angels a.k.a. Satan and his demonic entourage abused this freedom
and rebelled against God.
A world
without freedom is not a good world. Therefore, as C.S Lewis wrote in ‘Problem
of Pain,’ God has created a good world in such a way that the goodness of this
world could be perverted into evil upon mankind’s rebellion or when creation is
distorted.
In other
words, free beings i.e. man could use their freedom to perform evil deeds by
rejecting God, which in effect would destroy the goodness of God’s creation.
Similarly man can tamper with nature to bring about evil e.g. destruction of
coral reefs would bring about hunger, poverty and political instability.
As long as God
offers freedom to his creation, the free moral agents (e.g. man) would possess
the ability to do good or evil. So the question is not about Satan’s existence
whereas the question should be about the presence of freedom.
In the same vein, we can also claim
that there is nothing odd or wrong in God designing viruses. The virus operates
under a certain autonomy to change. That change causes the virulence in the virus
to infect and injure humans. So God creating these viruses does not make HIM
evil, especially because HE is not the direct cause of evil.
Finally, how do we navigate these turbulent
waters of lockdown and curfew that could lead to uncertainty, fear, and worry?
Go
to Jesus.
Jesus lived in a time and age when
people were dying of common cold, flu, and an abscessed tooth. Yet Jesus went to
the sick and healed them.
Our world today is much safer than
Jesus’ time. We have overcome many problems that our ancestors were unable to. However, the problem we face today is certainly daunting.
So let us approach the Lord Jesus.
HE will never deny those who approach HIS throne of grace seeking healing,
comfort, peace, and wisdom to navigate the turbulent times that we are living
in:7
Christians
believe that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Yet we sometimes overlook
the second part. Jesus of Nazareth was born into a world of illness. In her
book “Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit,” about daily life in first-century Galilee,
Jodi Magness, a scholar of early Judaism, calls the milieu in which Jesus lived
“filthy, malodorous and unhealthy.” John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed,
scholars of the historical background of Jesus, sum up these conditions in a
sobering sentence in “Excavating Jesus”: “A case of the flu, a bad cold, or an
abscessed tooth could kill.” This was Jesus’s world.
Moreover, in
his public ministry, Jesus continually sought out those who were sick. Most of
his miracles were healings from illnesses and disabilities: debilitating skin
conditions (under the rubric of “leprosy”), epilepsy, a woman’s “flow of
blood,” a withered hand, “dropsy,” blindness, deafness, paralysis. In these
frightening times, Christians may find comfort in knowing that when they pray
to Jesus, they are praying to someone who understands them not only because he
is divine and knows all things, but because he is human and experienced all
things.
Go to Jesus. HE is the bread of
life. Those that are with HIM lack nothing.
Endnotes:
1https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/wash-us-dr-joshua-swamidass-builds-bridge-between-science-and-creation-myths-new-book#stream/0
2https://evolutionnews.org/2020/03/evolution-design-and-covid-19/
3Ibid.
4https://peacefulscience.org/covid-19-created-designed/
5https://evolutionnews.org/2020/03/evolution-design-and-covid-19/
6https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2015/02/why-did-god-create-satan-knowing-that.html
7https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/opinion/coronavirus-religion.html
Websites last accessed on 25th
March 2020.
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