COVID-19 could be considered the Earth’s latest attempt to kill you. Why do viruses and other dangers to our lives even exist? Danger teaches personal wisdom and disease requires mankind's cooperation to overcome. The wisdom to fight viruses had to be learned, and that wisdom is keeping death tolls low today.
Upon the foundation that we were sent to earth to have experiences, make decisions, and learn wisdom, we are now ready to build an understanding of COVID-19. The earth was meant to be a place that challenges us at every turn. To bring out the best in us, or the worst in us, earth life had to put us under… stress. We were given bodies that need to be sheltered and fed almost continuously. We must provide for our families and ourselves every single day - whether we are hunter-gatherers, farmers, or office workers. We must do all that in the face of droughts, famine, sickness, and layoffs.
But some challenges to our well-being cannot be overcome by the increase of our personal wisdom alone. These dangers are so severe and complicated that it takes all of mankind to address them. Disease is the best example of an earthly challenge that we had to solve in a very large and long-term group effort. Due to medical breakthroughs, we are infinitely more prepared to fight this virus than were past generations. We should be very thankful for that. The diseases of earth continue to afflict us, but, because of mankind’s success over past outbreaks, we are prepared to fight new diseases today. This is not ironic; this is the way it was meant to be.
For more information on this topic, please visit my website at scottrfrazer.com. To make comments or ask questions, please email me at scottrfrazer@gmail.com.
If interested in more detail, this topic is more fully reviewed in the book Angry with God – Understanding the Rules of Earth Life, by Scott R. Frazer.
“Science and Scriptures” Podcast – Episode #2 (or Why do we have COVID-19?)
Hello again. My name is Scott Frazer and I would like to welcome you to episode #2 in the podcast Science and Scriptures. This show discusses how facts revealed by science, if understood, reveal truths both about the Gospel and the order of the universe.I would like to recognize my publisher Cedar Fort for providing the platform for this podcast and remind you that any opinions expressed here are mine only.
Last week we discussed a few aspects of the meaning of life. I asked you to compare the person you were on your birth date to the person you will be on your death date. How will you as a person differ from the person you were when you were born here?Any differences between the person you were on Day One on Earth and the person you will be on Day Last on Earth is what you have accomplished in your own personal development during your earth life. You will leave behind children, grandchildren, and earthly possessions of which you may be very proud. But you will be judged on the person you have become. So… what kind of person are you?
You are a composite of what your DNA built into you (your nature, so to speak), and what you have learned in your youth and adulthood. You are the result of your experiences, the choices you made, and the wisdom you have learned. Hopefully, your choices have been good and righteous ones and you have learned much wisdom from them.
So, accepting this definition of your mission in life, how do we justify the existence of COVID-19, or of any danger in our lives? How does danger and death fit into the explanation of why we are here?
Danger is an inherent part of earth life.
DR. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON is a famous astrophysicist, author, and he has hosted several television shows on astronomy. Because astrophysicists study the universe and its workings, Dr. Tyson is often asked about his belief in God. His response is that, in all his study of the cosmos, he has never found evidence of a benevolent being. He stated,
“If your concept of a creator is someone who is all-powerful and all-good . . . [when] I look at disasters that afflict Earth and life on Earth—volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, disease, pestilence, and congenital birth defects . . . I just ask, “How do you deal with that?”
Dr. Tyson is not alone in his conclusion. Many people look at the dangers of the earth and dismiss the concept of a loving God who would create such a world. I’m sure Dr. Tyson would agree that the earth really is a beautiful planet. We have a warm sun, a blue sky, a beautiful moon, mountains, trees, flowers, and wildlife.We have plentiful air, water, and food. It is a wonderful place to live out our mortality. For 99% of the time, the weather is great, and living here is like an extended vacation.
But Dr. Tyson may not have considered in his complaint that we have not been placed on the earth to enjoy extended vacations. On a vacation world, the hardest decision we might have to make is whether we want to visit the mountains or the beach today. The only wisdom we might learn from that choice is that the mountains can be rather cold this time of year. We were put on the earth to make more difficult decisions than the destination of a day trip and to learn more wisdom than the mountains can be cold.
The earth was meant to be a place that challenges us at every turn. To bring out the best in us, or the worst in us, earth life had to put us under… stress. We were given bodies that need to be sheltered and fed almost continuously. Therefore, we must provide for our families and ourselves every single day - whether we are hunter-gatherers, farmers, or office workers. We must do all that in the face of droughts, famine, sickness, and layoffs.
Then we have the dangers inherent in living on our planet. Notably, if you have ever noticed, some of the worst threats in our lives come from the very blessings we need to survive on the planet.
For example,
You need Gravity to hold you onto the surface of the planet – but, IF YOU MAKE A MISTEP AT THE EDGE OF A CLIFF, Gravity will cause a fall that could be fatal.
You need Water to hydrate your body – but if you MAKE A POOR CHOICE and get too much water in your lungs, then you will drown.
Fire warms your home and cooks your food – but IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL fire can also provide a painful death or injury.
Wind is pleasant and necessary to normalize temperatures and blow in rainclouds from the oceans. But wind can also become hurricanes and tornados, so WE HAVE CHOOSE TO BUILD MORE secure homes and commercial buildings that can stand up to them.
Rain is needed to water our crops, but UNLESS WE CONTROL IT, rain can also become floods that wash away those crops and our homes.
In each case, if you noticed my clever enunciations, unavoidable dangers exist, and IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL AND WISE AROUND THEM, they can damage or kill us. Many of us choose to learn wisdom the hard way - and our lives are threatened. A few of us make a very bad decision from which we cannot recover – and we lose our lives.
We live in a society that insulates us from the consequences of many bad decisions, so we can often excuse ourselves for bad decisions. But we should still recognize and hold ourselves accountable for bad decisions from which we escape without damage.
A few weeks ago, I saw a church video called Where Justice, Love and Mercy Meet, narrated by Jeffery Holland. It is about two brothers who decide to climb a sheer canyon wall in southern Utah with no climbing gear. The younger brother makes it to the top with the help of his sibling. But the older brother is stuck, not able to climb up or down.He clings to the cliff wall, near exhaustion, and knows he must propel his body over a protrusion in the wall to survive his ordeal. Before doing so, he prays, “Heavenly Father, I’m so sorry…” I was both startled and happy to hear the beginning of this prayer, because I rarely hear such words in other church stories involving prayer in emergencies. Usually emergency prayers start out with “Please help us ….”
But in this account, this young man recognized that he had gotten himself into dire, life-threatening circumstances. He took responsibility for his bad decision – and in prayer he expressed his regret.He prays for his family and his brother and he makes the leap. His brother is there to catch him pull him up. Both survive the rash and unwise decision they had made. Certainly a happy ending, and I hope a very educational experience, since that is what we are on earth to do. In any case, I would like to recognize the young man’s repentance over his stupid choice – and the fact that he did so before asking his Heavenly Father to help bail him out of it.
Why Volcanoes and Earthquakes Exist
To further understand other dangers inherent in our earth, I would like to talk about the dangers from volcanoes and earthquakes. Both of these dangers result from the creation of the earth, which might be good to understand.
When the earth was very young, it was also nearly featureless. In those early days, the earth was a moldable molten mass of magma. Gravity pulled the viscous magma into the tightest packing it could, making the young earth a rather featureless sphere. As the magma on the surface cooled, it hardened into the lower parts of our earth’s crust. As water was formed or gathered from icy meteorites, a continuous but shallow ocean covered the earth. Gradually, under pressures from the magma underneath, the mantle broke into pieces that we now call “tectonic plates.”
Where the internal pressure was highest, magma continued to push up through the plate seams and put pressure on the two plates to move out of the way. Over millions of years, when two tectonic plates collided, one plate would be swept up on top of the other. As the plates collided and folded upon themselves, massive mountain ranges were formed. Deep valleys and canyons were also created and, once filled with run-off water, became our deep oceans and seas.
So, tectonic plates had a major role in creating the beautiful—and dry—lands upon which we live. The earth has about fifteen major tectonic plates and a number of smaller plates as well. These plates still contact each another but they continue to move.Fault lines are where these plates contact each other. They are generally found along the coast where land meets ocean. These points of contact push against one another with the weight of entire continents. When one of these contact points crumble, the tectonic plate slips a bit. On the surface, we feel the jolt of that movement as an earthquake. A major quake is often followed by aftershock tremors that occur as the new fault lines settle into place against each other. Though earthquakes are hard to predict, geologists have determined where these fault lines lie.
To avoid the danger of earthquakes, the wisest strategy would be to not live over a fault line, but fault lines are right along coastal regions, and people like to live near the beach. The most famous fault line in the world is the San Andreas Fault, which is the contact point of two of the largest tectonic plates in the world. East of the fault lies the North American Plate and to the west of the fault line is the massive Pacific Plate. The San Andreas Fault runs along the entire coast of California, with the Pacific Plate slipping north and the North American Plate sliding south.Consequently, Southern California has about ten thousand earthquakes per year. Most of them are so small that they are not even felt. But about 15 – 20 register higher than a 4.0 on the Richter scale, which is the point where property damage is expected to occur.
I am not going to suggest that the millions of Californians who live, work, and drive over the San Andreas Fault should all move out of the state. But when the next big earthquake does happen, people will undoubtedly question why God allowed such a disaster to happen. Yet, there is no question as to why it will have happened. Californians have decided that the advantages of living in California outweigh the dangers. It is, of course, their right to choose, but when the next big earthquake hits—and we are assured by seismologists that it will—we should all remember the choices that were made and accept the consequences.
We also find dangers from plants and animals.
From the very first chapter of Genesis, both plants and animals were given the commandment by God to be fruitful and multiply. To do this, every species of plant and animal has to nourish itself, protect itself from being eaten, mature, find a mate, and have offspring. Some species also must feed their offspring until they are old enough to survive on their own. Please note that in His directive, God did not tell the plants and animals to leave mankind alone. They could hunt man, and defend themselves against him, as they wished.
So, the other organisms on our planet have prepared their defenses. For example, in the Plant Kingdom, Hemlock, Nightshade, and Snakeroot will quickly poison you. Spiny plants, such as Cactus, thorny plants, and prickly plants, will pierce your skin to discourage you from collecting or otherwise attacking them.
From the Animal Kingdom, many animals will attack you with teeth and claws to protect themselves.Other animals will gore you with their horns, kick you with their hooves, or trample you with their shear bulk.Snakes bites are poisonous, eels will shock you, and sharks will eat you. There are dangers everywhere you turn. Most of mankind’s efforts to civilize earth has been to remove the plants and animals that threaten us.
Is Danger a Requirement of Earth Life?
Did gravity, water, fire, wind, and rain have to come with dangers? Could we have had a planet with gravity that holds us to earth but cuts off if we fall? Is it possible to have water we can drink but not drown in? Could weather patterns have been programmed to provide only gentle summer rains without the dangers of thunderstorms, blizzards, and hailstorms?
I have no references and I have no proof, but I don’t think such a child-proofed world exists. Our earth life is exceedingly beautiful, giving us a variety of sceneries, temperatures, weather, plants, and animals, but sometimes the extremes of that diversity can be dangerous. Earth was designed to thrill us, stretch us, try us, and challenge us. Would we want to live on a world where we could be careless and have no consequences for our actions? Could we have learned the wisdom of avoiding danger and caring for ourselves in a world where there was no danger? I don’t believe we would. It is hard to take danger seriously if it is only being described to you. We must live with the dangers and learn from them. But God did not have to separately create dangers and natural disasters. They are already built into our planet and I believe there was a purpose behind that.
So now let us talk about Disease.
So, gravity, fire, prickly pear cactus, and skunks will teach you personal wisdom. Each delivers an immediate consequence to a bad decision on your part.
But some challenges to our well-being cannot be overcome by the increase of our personal wisdom alone. These dangers are so severe and complicated that it takes all of mankind to address them. Disease is the best example of an earthly challenge that we had to solve in a very large and long-term group effort. The war against bacteria and viruses has been brutal. Millions of people have died – in fact, no other earthly danger has killed more of our fellow humans. Overcoming disease has required the efforts of thousands of doctors over thousands of years.
Communicable disease is a unique earthly challenge. To reduce the danger of being attacked by a lion, I just have to be alert and stay away from lions. Throughout history, millions of people who died from a disease did nothing wrong or unwise. Their only bad decision was to be around someone who was sick, and they almost certainly had no idea they risked contamination as they did so. Bacteria and viruses are invisible, which make them much harder to fight.
To better appreciate, the extent of the effort around disease control, perhaps a little science and history around diseases is in order.
Disease is either caused by bacteria or viruses. Bacteria are single cell organisms like you might see under a microscope in biology class.Being so small, you might think that a single bacterial cell is the simplest form of life. But viruses are even simpler. An infectious virus particle, called a vi’rion, only consists of some nucleic acid (such as DNA) and an outer shell of protein.
Though viruses and bacteria have killed millions of people over thousands of years, they are both microscopic and fragile organisms. Most bacteria must live in water of a very moderate temperature, acidity, and salinity. Viruses are so small that they can barely be distinguished by an electron microscope. They must reside in the cells of other organisms just to survive room temperature.
But both viruses and bacteria invade, multiply, and spread throughout a host organism. Once established and multiplying, bacteria and viruses invade the body fluids of the host—saliva, stomach contents, urine, and feces. When those bodily fluids are expelled, the bacteria or virus can spread to those good-hearted souls who clean up the mess of that expulsion. Coughing is a very common symptom of infections, and sprays germ-laden saliva into the air. When they are inhaled into the warm, moist, hospitable environment of the lungs of a new host, the bacteria or virus have a new fertile field for reproduction. Despite all appearances, a bacteria or virus that is killing its human host is not evil. It does not have a brain or a murderous intent.
Plagues have existed for many centuries, but we are only aware of those that were documented by the historians of the time. As the population of men grew and came together in larger cities, with merchants, soldiers, and others traveling between those population centers, contagious diseases had a much greater opportunity to spread further and faster. in the fifth century BC, Greece was a world power and Athens was its large and busy capital. In 430 BC, a plague hit Athens that killed about one half of its population.
In the first and second centuries AD, the Roman Empire was at the height of its power. Rome was the epicenter of the empire and, as the saying goes, “All roads led to Rome.” That fact was its undoing. In AD 160, one man, possibly a Roman soldier returning home from Mesopotamia, brought an enemy to Rome that its vast and well-trained armies could not combat—the variola or smallpox virus. A second plague attacked the city in 250 AD. Some areas reported mortality rates of, again, around 50%.
In the 1330s, a particularly virulent strain of bubonic plague broke out in China and Mongolia. It went on to become the most-traveled plague of its time. Following established trade routes, the disease headed both west into Europe and south into the Middle East.
It is estimated that about thirty-seven million people died in Asia from the Black Death. In Europe, about twenty-four million people, or about one quarter of its population, died of the same plague.
Authors of the time frankly stated that future generations would never appreciate the effects of this plague across the entire Eurasian continent. I agree with them. We cannot imagine the emptied villages, churches filled with dead bodies, and utter silence in what should have been bustling towns and roads. Physicians were helpless, having had no idea what was causing the deaths of their patients. Priests and church leaders had no answers either. A man named Agnolo di Tura of Siena, Italy, wrote the following description:
“Father abandoned child, wife, husband; one brother, another, for this illness seemed to strike through the breath and the sight. And so they died. And no one could be found to bury the dead for money or for friendship…”
We have less information about the plagues that afflicted the New World, but we do know that European explorers and conquerors brought some of the worst plagues seen in the Americas. As Jared Diamond explains in his book Guns, Germs and Steel,
“The importance of lethal microbes in human history is well illustrated by Europeans’ conquest and depopulation of the New World. Far more Native Americans died in bed from Eurasian germs than on the battlefield from European guns and swords. These germs undermined Indian resistance by killing most Indians and their leaders and by sapping the survivors’ morale.”
With very small armies, the Spanish to defeat the mighty Aztec and Incan Empires because disease, mostly smallpox, decimated the population.
So, why have I reviewed this very depressing part of earth’s history? I want you to understand that COVID-19, while a significant disease threat, pales in comparison to past epidemics. We need to put this new pandemic in perspective of past pandemics.We are infinitely more prepared to fight this virus than were past generations. We should be very thankful for that. The diseases of earth remain the same, but, because of mankind’s success over those past outbreaks, we are prepared to fight new diseases today.This is not ironic; this is the way it was meant to be.
The costs of keeping the earth a place of faith will be reviewed in a later podcast. Deaths by disease has been one of the highest costs of that requirement. For earth to remain a place of faith, God could not just hand us the medical knowledge to eliminate disease. With research, experiments, and clinical trials, mankind has had to earn our knowledge of how to treat smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, diphtheria, malaria, mumps, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, and yellow fever.
Today, we can add COVID-19 to our list of fatal diseases. Our modern world has assisted in its dispersal. With airliners flying people all over the world, a contagious disease can spread across the planet in a matter of a few hours. Long before medical centers even knew a new disease existed, COVID-19 had spread across the globe. As we have done for centuries, mankind is now having to discover how to fight a viral infection. And as they have done for centuries, doctors are learning what they can, sharing what they learn with others, and laboring to develop cures and vaccines. Against this foe, as with all plagues before it, wisdom is being gathered in a long-term, worldwide effort.
So, the Coronavirus has affected the lives of everyone on earth for the past six months. Many people are asking, “What did we ever do to deserve this?!” Though many people may see the disease as a sign of the Apocalypse, it is not. The earth has seen much worse epidemics in its past. But nothing we did as a people or planet has brought on the coronavirus. Simply put, earth life is dangerous.
As we have discussed, we are on earth to learn from our experiences. What lessons we can learn from our COVID-19 experience? Well, how did you hold up under the strain? Did you come to appreciate your friends more?Do you now look forward to returning to church and temple worship – a blessing many of us have taken for granted for decades? Did you make good decisions during the crisis, learning to adjust to the new requirements of living your life?
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year of the Coronavirus. It was a challenge which some people endured well - and others endured at great cost to their happiness and even to their sanity.
This is a year that we might best come to understand that earth life is a testing period. We are tasked with avoiding the dangers of earth, feeding our families, and, occasionally, enduring the death of loved ones. Occasionally, something will happen – a big earthquake, a bad flood, or an epidemic – that takes us by surprise. But these come as a result of living on earth. These dangers do not come from a capricious God who offhandedly throws difficulties in your path. Difficulties are pre-programmed as a part of life, included in your mortal trial. Though there are strict rules He must abide, God is cheering your progress. In any case, congratulations on your success in enduring the COVID-19 crisis so far. Hang in there, learn what you can from it, and make good decisions.
That is all I have for today’s episode. Next week we will talk about some of the things you might say in a discussion with an atheist.Hopefully, you will be able to join us.This is Scott Frazer from the podcast “Science and Scriptures”. If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at scottrfrazer@gmail.com. So till next time then. Take care and learn wisdom.