People are looking for the meaning or purpose of the current coronavirus pandemic. Some claim that it’s God’s wrath onto humans. Others claim that people must now change in a certain direction (eg, more love, religion, and/or sustainability AND/OR less greed, pollution, travel, etc.).
If and when you believe there is a Supreme Being (eg, Ahura Mazda, Allah, Brahman, God, Yahweh) then the default view is that the Supreme Being loves – rather than hates – humans. The only exception that I know of, is the intriguing 2015 movie The Brand New Testament a.k.a. “God exists, he lives in Belgium” (IMDb), starring the Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde.
From a micro perspective, COVID-19 causes many thousands of horrible deaths. From a macro angle, the Greater Good theory might apply (my blogs). This concept argues that some sacrifices are necessary in order to reach a more important goal. That goal (or meaning/purpose) might be Change. It’s tempting to argue that a Supreme Being would support a Greater Good theory.
Worldwide pandemics – unlike national or regional epidemics – are actually quite rare. The Wikipedia list of epidemics shows a (very) long list. The short list of pandemics will reveal itself once you sort the 1st column (ie, death toll) from high to low. The 1st line is misleading (ie, “1877-1977”) as the earliest evidence of smallpox dates back “to the 3rd century BCE in Egyptian mummies”.
The 2nd line is the 1917 “Spanish” flu pandemic. The 3rd line may not even qualify as a pandemic as the HIV virus was targeting a very specific group of men. The remaining generic pandemics happen with gaps of some hundreds of years. Hence, there seems to be some generational cycle.
My March 25 blog: “There appears to be a statistical correlation between economic depressions and pandemics (eg, CDC-2017, NCBI-2016, Reuters-2013, WSJ-2009). Another intriguing thought is that virus pandemics may somehow operate alongside the human generational cycle”.
A shortening of this cycle makes sense because of global population growth, globalised trade and globalised travel. Growth always results in an increase of specialisation (eg, any lifeform, jobs, organisations). Specialisation always results in a loss of common knowledge (my blogs). Moreover, humans are experts in forgetting.
Darwin‘s evolutionary theory, including its survival of the fittest, hasn’t stopped following the human Technological Revolution of 1800-2100 (my blogs). The continued recurrence of pandemics merely shows human ignorance and humiliates human arrogance. The Neanderthal lived for about 800,000 years (my blogs). Homo sapiens might just be too fragile.
Get A Life (1989) by Soul II Soul
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
What’s the meaning
What’s the meaning of life
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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