Stuffy Doses ad Broked Toses

Viruses as "Non-Entities" for a Proper Understanding Evil

A virus is not a living organism because it cannot "multiply without hijacking the reproductive machinery of a cell," says scientist Edgar Andrews in his book, Who Made God?* A virus is in contrast to a single biological cell, what Andrews and the rest of the scientific community (most notably, geneticist and evolutionary biologist John Haldane [1892-1964] ) call a 'minimal organism.' A minimal organism is able to replicate itself, but a virus, considered not a living organism and not 'truly alive', can only replicate itself by attacking a living organism. Isn't evil similar to this?

Philosophers and theologians have often regarded evil as a privation of the good. It is a marring, or distortion of what is good. Evil destroys life, even as it (evil) prospers, much like a virus. Evil, as a "non-living" entity, latches onto the good, and perverts it. By contrast, evil does have a positive aspect to it, as free agents engage in actions which are described as moral evil. However, evil, like the rotting of an apple, is the decay of that which is good, proper and whole.


*Edgar Andrews, Who Made God? Searching for a Theory of Everything, (Faverdale North, Darlington, England: EP Books), 2009, p. 179.

Haiti

I think many of us are afraid to say that God Almighty, who is sovereign over all, "caused" the earthquake, or "permitted" it, which is why we say natural disasters (as it were--note the terminology again) are the result of Sin, rather than the contained in the sovereign, predestined plan of God. And we don't want to say that God is the author of evil. He most certainly is NOT. But, how can we use biblical truth and biblical language in dealing with such disasters? We have to say that He is sovereign and that such things don't happen apart from his decretive will. For many of us, though, this is not a philosophical/theological problem as much as it is a pastoral one. And the proper response is that evil is a mystery in the plan of God, and that we as the church need to be proponents of mercy, grace, and goodwill. This is why so many Christians are in Haiti right now, because they follow the directives of Jesus to take care of the poor, the downtrodden, the widows and the orphans as James writes in his epistle. This is true religion--to take care of these people.