Is the Virus an Act of God or Nature? - Day #12 (5 April 2020) - 21 day #Covid19 Lock down

Day #12 (5 April 2020)

Is the Virus an Act of God or Nature?

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modelled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.”

Albert Einstein

This time the Gods are being put to test. If we are to follow the hierarchy by supposition, it is unbelievable that a virus has put the Gods to test! Some say it is the play of the evil, the Satan or a Rakshas. Some believe it is God’s creation to punish those who acted against his will, for instance, like eating animal flesh. And some even believe that the virus is God’s will, and that it only shows we are not doing enough of God’s work.

But we, homo sapiens, know the truth. Only we know, that the God never was before we came and created it. First, we revered or feared nature, and the various manifestations of it. This became either Gods or the Demons. Later we fashioned these manifestations into figures that we could relate to, and we also added a few of our own, to cover other aspects, such as truth, lie, emotions, knowledge, health and so on. Soon we created the domain that God’s function, like an organisation – the religion. The evil, the Satan for some, the Dusht sakthi for others, was also created by us. And the ultimate supposition, the one diktat that makes it all fall in place, that God is greater than us was also formulated by us. In recent times, we also see how some people, of a self-proclaimed higher order, are ordained to have the status equivalent to God!

Now, a creation of God, a Corona virus, living for millions of years in another of God’s creation, a Bat, is unleashed on the ultimate creator, the human race. Gods, from the time they were created, were let to evolve, where in some regions like India for instance, it has 33 crore in number - have always been challenged and tested. Wherein, almost always, we, human beings, the ultimate creator, have gone running to their rescue. The virtual, that has no physical space or boundaries – the religion in all cases, have a strong army of spirited, blessed zealots who were ever ready to shed blood, to save the God, and thwart the challenge. That is the story of every religion, and most Gods! Atleast, till the virus came!

Now, we are shocked. We could not defend the God anymore, because this virus was infecting and killing the ultimate creator itself, Us.

So, the abode of all the Gods have shut down. The Vatican, the seat of the Christian head, the Pope, has been closed to all visitors. The Pope Francis had to deliver his blessing to an empty St. Peter's Square. In India, all the major Hindu temples are closed following the national lock down. In the heartland of Islam, Saudi Arabia, they have stopped all pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina. Mosques across the Muslim nations have closed. The Akal Takht has ordered all the gurudwaras to limit their daily activities.

The leaders of the religions are all doing their best to allay the fears that it is doomsday, and that even the Gods are helpless. Each of them are turning to rituals and methods that they have always used effectively: chants, prayers and exhortations to gods. In India, the Hindus are chanting mantras, and there are even TV channels that have shifted out their schedules to have special chants to ward of Covid19 and protect the people. Pastors in the US are organising mega-congregations and even asking their believers to shake hands and keep the church open, and proclaiming that the Lord will keep Christians safe. Even the American President, with his very suspect connection to such tele-evangelists, don’t seem to believe enough about the science behind Covid19, and in a recent statement has even refused to use a mask. Many Islamic fundamental groups claim its the ‘Act of God’, especially against the Americans, but have gone silent since the Covid19 started killing people of their own religion. All this, while a small, but dedicated and over-worked army of officials, scientists, doctors, nurses, police and volunteers are doing the best they can day-in and day-out to ensure people are taken care, and the virus is stopped. It’s not as if these people don’t have Gods, and are not religious. But they carry the call of duty to humanity and to their families more than evangelising the virtual.

Why is this pandemic happening ? Where is God in all of this? What is the God trying to tell us ? This is when even the most religious of people, should just be honest, acknowledge that for humanity, Nature is the God, and that we have been presumptuous, irrational and ruinous to it.

Here again, as in the recent past, the most appropriate message came from none other that the Pope Francis. He stated, “The worldwide corona virus pandemic is not God's judgement on humanity, but God's call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on”. He added, "it is not the time of your judgement, but of our judgement: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.”

“The pandemic”, the pope said, "has exposed our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It is a time to decide to live differently, live better, love more and care for others”. "Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things and be lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet" Pope Francis said. "We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick”

Here, there is no human construct called God, Nature is the God. The “Acts of God” are messages. Consider them, and we survive as a species. Ignore them, and we disappear – Man, God and Religion, together. What will then remain is still Nature that, in all probability, will never need a God!