God and Nature Summer 2020
COVID-19 and the Goodness of Creation |
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By Jonathan Warner
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, much has been written about the virus—its nature, its spread, and its effects. Religious leaders have also weighed in on the theological issues the pandemic raises: is the virus a work of the Devil, a judgment from God, or something else?
We know that the effects of the virus are bad for human beings. Why would a good God afflict the part of His creation made in His image with it? Popular Christian theodicies seek to take the “blame” away from God. Either it is a consequence of human sin, which has attracted God’s judgement, or God isn’t responsible at all—an out-of-control Devil, the “god of this world”, has somehow produced it with the intention of wrecking God’s plans.
But could there be a different way of approaching the question about the source and meaning of the virus? As a threat to human beings, it originated in the Wuhan area of China, when it jumped from an animal— possibly a bat via some other creature, most likely from something sold at a wet market where wild creatures are sold for human food.
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, much has been written about the virus—its nature, its spread, and its effects. Religious leaders have also weighed in on the theological issues the pandemic raises: is the virus a work of the Devil, a judgment from God, or something else?
We know that the effects of the virus are bad for human beings. Why would a good God afflict the part of His creation made in His image with it? Popular Christian theodicies seek to take the “blame” away from God. Either it is a consequence of human sin, which has attracted God’s judgement, or God isn’t responsible at all—an out-of-control Devil, the “god of this world”, has somehow produced it with the intention of wrecking God’s plans.
But could there be a different way of approaching the question about the source and meaning of the virus? As a threat to human beings, it originated in the Wuhan area of China, when it jumped from an animal— possibly a bat via some other creature, most likely from something sold at a wet market where wild creatures are sold for human food.
"But even the thorns and thistles that infested farmland as a result of God’s curse on the earth have a purpose." |
We know that God is good—love, indeed (1 John 4:16b)—and that He created a universe which He pronounced to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31). How can His loving care for us and all creation be reconciled with the death and devastation that COVID-19 has caused?
Viruses are not mentioned in Scripture. Being invisible to the naked eye, they weren’t known to the human authors of the Old Testament. It’s not even completely clear whether or not they are alive: although they consist of organic material (DNA or RNA), they are unable to reproduce without the presence of other organisms (cells). Host cells can be plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. For the purposes of this article, though, whether viruses are living or not is unimportant. If God can call inanimate objects to respond to Him when He spoke the world into being, He can surely call viruses. Like all of creation, viruses are called to do what they were created to do. For viruses, this means to reproduce and colonize new cells. Just as a good horse is one which displays the attributes of “horsiness” to the greatest extent possible, or a good tree is one which bears good fruit of the appropriate kind at the right time (Matt. 7:17, 18; Luke 6:43; James 3:12; Psalm 1:3), a good virus does what it’s created to do, to praise God by replicating itself inside the cells of a host. Viruses, as part of a good creation, are themselves good, even if the command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:22) doesn’t apply directly to them.
If viruses are part of a good creation, then we should expect to see evidence of that goodness. Perhaps surprisingly, we do: not all of them are harmful. Some have a (potential) role in medicine: phage therapy, using viruses to attack bacteria, has been advocated as a way of dealing with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Exposure to some viruses can inoculate people against other, more serious, viruses. The observation that cowpox virus gave immunity against smallpox led to Edward Jenner’s use of it in the late eighteenth century, and eventually to the production of a vaccine against smallpox. Ultimately, smallpox was eradicated worldwide by 1980.
The viruses that cause polio and yellow fever have been harnessed, in attenuated form, as the basis of vaccines which have virtually eliminated these diseases from the world. Similarly, there have been suggestions that some varieties of the common cold (those caused by a coronavirus) might give, or be developed to give, immunity to COVID-19 (1). It is also possible that some viruses are beneficial in themselves (just as there are good bacteria which we need for digestion and other bodily processes).
So what went wrong? Why is it that viruses today are seen exclusively as causing suffering and death? The easy answer is that Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden affected the development and evolution of viruses. The complex information carried by a virus (e.g., the smallpox virus) causes disease, suffering and death. The Curse following the Fall is intrinsic to our understanding of this. If ‘thorns and thistles’ were to come forth out of the ground where none existed previously, then a direct creation of new genetic material encoding the ability to cause harm must have taken place after the Fall (2).
A more nuanced answer is to examine the roles originally assigned to humankind—the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:26-8) and Adam's work in the garden (Gen. 2:15). God gave Adam the role of filling the earth and ruling over the other creatures (Gen. 1:28); Adam, in Eden, was given the task to cultivate, guard, keep and take care of the garden. It seems there is more to do than just pick and eat fruit. What might this mean? In a prelapsarian world, there would be no thorns and thistles that needed to be weeded out (Gen. 3:18). But even the thorns and thistles that infested farmland as a result of God’s curse on the earth have a purpose. Thorns keep out animals, provide shelter for small creatures, and provide nesting sites for birds. Some bear blackberries in due season. Thistles are sufficiently elegant and beautiful to have become the national flower of Scotland. But thorns and thistles are a source of aggravation and toil when they grow in fields (or in the cultivated parts of gardens).
Gardening in Eden would require not only planting and watering, but also pruning, in order to make the plants fruitful (John 15:1-3). As I've discovered during lockdown, even thistle-free gardens need care. Grass needs to be mown. Pollinators need to be encouraged, and plants kept to their assigned places. God has established the earth, sun, moon, and stars (Psalm 8:3; 24:2; 96:10; 74:16; Jer. 31:35) He keeps the sea in its place (Prov. 8:27-29; Psalm 104:5-9). He established the borders of Israel and other nations (Ex. 23:31; Deut. 32:8-9). Putting things in their proper places is part of the work of stewardship required in a garden, delegated by God to His steward, the gardener. Keeping flowers, fruit, bushes, and vegetables within their prescribed places is also an important task, otherwise some get overrun and killed by other plants (Matt. 13:7) (3).
One of our roles of tending and stewarding creation, then, is to make sure plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and viruses remain in their proper places. Facilitating their growth into, and colonization of, other areas is a failure of stewardship—a human failing, not the failing of the plant or virus that spreads too far. Our stewarding responsibilities of caring and shepherding creation include other tasks as well: to maintain a healthy diversity of biota (gardens are not monocultures!) and protection of the life within them.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to have originated in a bat, or possibly a snake, and jumped to humans from an infected animal sold in a wet meat market in Wuhan. For Jews, bats and snakes are not kosher animals; that is, they should not be eaten. However, Jesus pronounced all food to be clean (Mark 7:19; Matt. 15:11), and Peter’s vision (Acts 10:9-16) could be interpreted to be a reinforcement of this point. Paul makes the same point (Rom. 14:6, I Cor. 10:25-6) and castigates those who try to lay down the law on what can and cannot be eaten (I Tim. 4:3-5). But, as the Kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking (Rom. 14:17), he also instructs his readers not to cause others to stumble by their dietary habits (Rom. 14:20; 1 Cor. 8 gives a full reasoning of his position). Paul also points out that just because something is permitted, it doesn’t necessary mean that it is beneficial (I Cor. 6:12 on sexual ethics); and, more pertinently, when he talks more generally of the Christian’s freedom, his example concerns food (I Cor. 10:23-33). Perhaps eating animals which were not intended for food (“unclean” ones) is unwise. Our appetites for meat need to be kept within bounds. One could argue the same about other environmental ills: climate change, habitat loss, plastic pollution, and the like could all be analysed as other examples of the failure to exercise wise stewardship—where we have failed to keep our activities within appropriate bounds (4).
My conclusion, then, is that the virus is not Satanic, nor is it a sign of God's wrath directly for some unrelated sin. Instead, it is a consequence of our failure, wittingly or unwittingly, to steward creation wisely, as God intended.
References
1. The evidence is limited at present. See Alba Grifoni et al., “Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals.” Cell. Vol. 181. Issue 7, pp. 1489-1502, https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2820%2930610-3 and the more accessible Ross Clark, “Could having a cold protect against Covid?” The Spectator, 15 May 2020 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/could-having-a-cold-protect-against-covid-.
2. Carl Wieland, Viruses Creation 2(1): 5-8, January 1979; https://creation.com/origin-of-viruses. The article continues, "Many a ‘smart’ questioner asks about the meat-eating equipment of e.g., tigers and lions—‘if they used to eat grass, how come they’ve got carnivorous teeth?’ The answer is rather obvious—the line of descent between the herbivorous ancestors (pre-Fall) of these creatures and their present descendants was interrupted by an intervening, direct creation of new genetic material."
3. In our garden, keeping the comfrey my brother gave us in its appointed place is an ongoing challenge.
4. The seminal paper, Johan Rockström et al., “A safe operating space for humanity.” Nature 461 (7263): pp. 472-475 (September 24, 2009) explores the capacity of the earth to absorb the effects of human activity—and shows that we are at, or beyond, the limit in several areas https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a. A longer version, by the same team, is entitled “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity.” Ecology and Society 14(2): 32 https://www.stockholmresilience.org/download/18.8615c78125078c8d3380002197/ES-2009-3180.pdf.
Jonathan Warner is Emeritus Professor of Economics, Quest University Canada; Research Associate at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College, Cambridge (UK); and at the Center for Faith and Human Flourishing, LCC International University, Klaipeda (Lithuania). PhD in Economics from the University of Wales.
Viruses are not mentioned in Scripture. Being invisible to the naked eye, they weren’t known to the human authors of the Old Testament. It’s not even completely clear whether or not they are alive: although they consist of organic material (DNA or RNA), they are unable to reproduce without the presence of other organisms (cells). Host cells can be plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. For the purposes of this article, though, whether viruses are living or not is unimportant. If God can call inanimate objects to respond to Him when He spoke the world into being, He can surely call viruses. Like all of creation, viruses are called to do what they were created to do. For viruses, this means to reproduce and colonize new cells. Just as a good horse is one which displays the attributes of “horsiness” to the greatest extent possible, or a good tree is one which bears good fruit of the appropriate kind at the right time (Matt. 7:17, 18; Luke 6:43; James 3:12; Psalm 1:3), a good virus does what it’s created to do, to praise God by replicating itself inside the cells of a host. Viruses, as part of a good creation, are themselves good, even if the command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:22) doesn’t apply directly to them.
If viruses are part of a good creation, then we should expect to see evidence of that goodness. Perhaps surprisingly, we do: not all of them are harmful. Some have a (potential) role in medicine: phage therapy, using viruses to attack bacteria, has been advocated as a way of dealing with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Exposure to some viruses can inoculate people against other, more serious, viruses. The observation that cowpox virus gave immunity against smallpox led to Edward Jenner’s use of it in the late eighteenth century, and eventually to the production of a vaccine against smallpox. Ultimately, smallpox was eradicated worldwide by 1980.
The viruses that cause polio and yellow fever have been harnessed, in attenuated form, as the basis of vaccines which have virtually eliminated these diseases from the world. Similarly, there have been suggestions that some varieties of the common cold (those caused by a coronavirus) might give, or be developed to give, immunity to COVID-19 (1). It is also possible that some viruses are beneficial in themselves (just as there are good bacteria which we need for digestion and other bodily processes).
So what went wrong? Why is it that viruses today are seen exclusively as causing suffering and death? The easy answer is that Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden affected the development and evolution of viruses. The complex information carried by a virus (e.g., the smallpox virus) causes disease, suffering and death. The Curse following the Fall is intrinsic to our understanding of this. If ‘thorns and thistles’ were to come forth out of the ground where none existed previously, then a direct creation of new genetic material encoding the ability to cause harm must have taken place after the Fall (2).
A more nuanced answer is to examine the roles originally assigned to humankind—the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:26-8) and Adam's work in the garden (Gen. 2:15). God gave Adam the role of filling the earth and ruling over the other creatures (Gen. 1:28); Adam, in Eden, was given the task to cultivate, guard, keep and take care of the garden. It seems there is more to do than just pick and eat fruit. What might this mean? In a prelapsarian world, there would be no thorns and thistles that needed to be weeded out (Gen. 3:18). But even the thorns and thistles that infested farmland as a result of God’s curse on the earth have a purpose. Thorns keep out animals, provide shelter for small creatures, and provide nesting sites for birds. Some bear blackberries in due season. Thistles are sufficiently elegant and beautiful to have become the national flower of Scotland. But thorns and thistles are a source of aggravation and toil when they grow in fields (or in the cultivated parts of gardens).
Gardening in Eden would require not only planting and watering, but also pruning, in order to make the plants fruitful (John 15:1-3). As I've discovered during lockdown, even thistle-free gardens need care. Grass needs to be mown. Pollinators need to be encouraged, and plants kept to their assigned places. God has established the earth, sun, moon, and stars (Psalm 8:3; 24:2; 96:10; 74:16; Jer. 31:35) He keeps the sea in its place (Prov. 8:27-29; Psalm 104:5-9). He established the borders of Israel and other nations (Ex. 23:31; Deut. 32:8-9). Putting things in their proper places is part of the work of stewardship required in a garden, delegated by God to His steward, the gardener. Keeping flowers, fruit, bushes, and vegetables within their prescribed places is also an important task, otherwise some get overrun and killed by other plants (Matt. 13:7) (3).
One of our roles of tending and stewarding creation, then, is to make sure plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and viruses remain in their proper places. Facilitating their growth into, and colonization of, other areas is a failure of stewardship—a human failing, not the failing of the plant or virus that spreads too far. Our stewarding responsibilities of caring and shepherding creation include other tasks as well: to maintain a healthy diversity of biota (gardens are not monocultures!) and protection of the life within them.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to have originated in a bat, or possibly a snake, and jumped to humans from an infected animal sold in a wet meat market in Wuhan. For Jews, bats and snakes are not kosher animals; that is, they should not be eaten. However, Jesus pronounced all food to be clean (Mark 7:19; Matt. 15:11), and Peter’s vision (Acts 10:9-16) could be interpreted to be a reinforcement of this point. Paul makes the same point (Rom. 14:6, I Cor. 10:25-6) and castigates those who try to lay down the law on what can and cannot be eaten (I Tim. 4:3-5). But, as the Kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking (Rom. 14:17), he also instructs his readers not to cause others to stumble by their dietary habits (Rom. 14:20; 1 Cor. 8 gives a full reasoning of his position). Paul also points out that just because something is permitted, it doesn’t necessary mean that it is beneficial (I Cor. 6:12 on sexual ethics); and, more pertinently, when he talks more generally of the Christian’s freedom, his example concerns food (I Cor. 10:23-33). Perhaps eating animals which were not intended for food (“unclean” ones) is unwise. Our appetites for meat need to be kept within bounds. One could argue the same about other environmental ills: climate change, habitat loss, plastic pollution, and the like could all be analysed as other examples of the failure to exercise wise stewardship—where we have failed to keep our activities within appropriate bounds (4).
My conclusion, then, is that the virus is not Satanic, nor is it a sign of God's wrath directly for some unrelated sin. Instead, it is a consequence of our failure, wittingly or unwittingly, to steward creation wisely, as God intended.
References
1. The evidence is limited at present. See Alba Grifoni et al., “Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals.” Cell. Vol. 181. Issue 7, pp. 1489-1502, https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2820%2930610-3 and the more accessible Ross Clark, “Could having a cold protect against Covid?” The Spectator, 15 May 2020 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/could-having-a-cold-protect-against-covid-.
2. Carl Wieland, Viruses Creation 2(1): 5-8, January 1979; https://creation.com/origin-of-viruses. The article continues, "Many a ‘smart’ questioner asks about the meat-eating equipment of e.g., tigers and lions—‘if they used to eat grass, how come they’ve got carnivorous teeth?’ The answer is rather obvious—the line of descent between the herbivorous ancestors (pre-Fall) of these creatures and their present descendants was interrupted by an intervening, direct creation of new genetic material."
3. In our garden, keeping the comfrey my brother gave us in its appointed place is an ongoing challenge.
4. The seminal paper, Johan Rockström et al., “A safe operating space for humanity.” Nature 461 (7263): pp. 472-475 (September 24, 2009) explores the capacity of the earth to absorb the effects of human activity—and shows that we are at, or beyond, the limit in several areas https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a. A longer version, by the same team, is entitled “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity.” Ecology and Society 14(2): 32 https://www.stockholmresilience.org/download/18.8615c78125078c8d3380002197/ES-2009-3180.pdf.
Jonathan Warner is Emeritus Professor of Economics, Quest University Canada; Research Associate at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College, Cambridge (UK); and at the Center for Faith and Human Flourishing, LCC International University, Klaipeda (Lithuania). PhD in Economics from the University of Wales.