Does humanity deserve Corona?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I think they only people who 'deserve' coronavirus are the people who say that people deserve coronavirus.

Boru

[Gwaithmir]

We don't deserve the Corona Virus any more or less than other natural disasters. Bad things simply happen to humanity from time to time. It's part of life. It's up to us to help each other in a crisis as best we can.

[The Grand Nudger]

I had two choices of thread for this one....

Nothing bad ever Simply Happens™ to person who believes that the fundamental structure of the universe is one of intent and desert, in which souls are forged for the hereafter. There is absolutely no fact of reality that will dissuade them from this notion.

[Alex K]

In the old days I would've written an angry or sarcastic reply, but from where I am now, life is simply too short for engaging with some asshole's damaged personality

[Gawdzilla Sama]

In the old days I would've written an angry or sarcastic reply, but from where I am now, life is simply too short for engaging with some asshole's damaged personality

I'd like to find his mother and ask her why she didn't drown the little fuck at birth. She should pay for that mistake.

[WinterHold]

You cry because Coronavirus is killing some thousands of you.

But why didn't you cry for Chinese Uighur Muslims butchered by the communist government?
Why didn't you cry for the Millions in Syria killed by Assad?
Why didn't you cry for Millions killed in Yemen by Saudi/U.A.E airstrikes?
Why didn't you cry for thousands tortured in prisons of Saudi Arabia?

Does humanity of today deserve covid-19 ?
I say yes.
Millions would also say yes.

Just like when the Black Death came.

Plagues come and go, and will continue to come and go so long as there are living things susceptible to them. All living things are susceptible to plagues, even plants.  It is the way of life and requires no magic sky fairy.

As to your accusations...

Chinese treatment of the Uighers is wrong.
Assad's actions in Syria are wrong.
Saudi/UAE actions in Syria are wrong.
Saudi Arabia is just...wrong.

Yet all of these rotate around belief in your stupid "god".

So China's communist regime acts based on belief in a holy book?
So Assad is murdering Syrians based on belief in a holy book?
Saudi Arabia and UAE are murdering Yemenies based on belief in a holy book?

Be honest with yourself instead of throwing the blame on a windmill; on void. God doesn't exist in the acts of those stated.

Personally, I have standing orders to charities operating in such areas. A monthly stipend automatically leaves my bank account to support humanitarian activities. I have one inviolate rule about those. No religion is permitted to be involved.

So what are YOU doing for those situations? Donating to MSF in Syria perhaps? Protesting in the streets against MBS, perhaps? Anything?

Good for you, really good. Sadly I am broke so I can't pay a penny.

[The Grand Nudger]

If your silly god prefers to wield pandemic as a weapon, instead of war - that's just another demonstration of it's unworthiness.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

If someone believes that ‘humanity deserves coronavirus’, why isn’t that person out looking for people with the virus and saying, ‘I’m human - please cough in my face’?

Boru

[WinterHold]

You cry because Coronavirus is killing some thousands of you.

But why didn't you cry for Chinese Uighur Muslims butchered by the communist government?
Why didn't you cry for the Millions in Syria killed by Assad?
Why didn't you cry for Millions killed in Yemen by Saudi/U.A.E airstrikes?
Why didn't you cry for thousands tortured in prisons of Saudi Arabia?

Does humanity of today deserve covid-19 ?
I say yes.
Millions would also say yes.

Just like when the Black Death came.

I agree with your strict criticism of humanity. I think I won't follow you in saying that this makes the virus deserved, especially.

There's no doubt at all that humanity, both individually and collectively, falls far short of what we could and should be. Every one of us is selfish, hypocritical, and self-justifying. Ideally our institutions would make it easier for us to be good, but they aren't set up that way. For the most part they encourage and reward our worst behavior. 

I suspect that human beings evolved our ability to do abstract reasoning mostly so we can invent reasons to justify our horribleness. Otherwise it would be too hard to face. 

And I agree that we are right to see this as a failing intrinsic to humanity, and not one portion or subset. One of the ways we overlook our own horribleness is by pointing to groups of which we are not members. It's easy to pretend that religion (to use the common example on this forum) is the key factor in our evil, when there is no reason to think that the absence of religion would improve things much. The evil is baked in. 

Humans can be better; that's for sure. Harnessing empathy is not a hard task, it comes naturally and can even be taught, but you will find the so-called values of "nationalism" blocking empathy from various human societies, in simpler words it makes humans "selfish"; not caring for others just because some borders on paper says that "this is American and this is an Asian".
When the institution is also a product of this "nationalistic sense"; its actions would also be serving the main concept that gave birth to it in the first place. From that, "selfishness" becomes more of a policy and guidance for any action done by the followers of that institution.
Let the religious lose faith and religion be eradicated; evil will not stop or even get touched.
As I look around, almost all evil today is carried on by the institutions that don't even believe in any religion.
Corona made a lot see through their institutions and ex-values; when your own countrymen are more dangerous to you on a personal level -due to infection- than windmills built by the media, one has to think.

Like it or not, European thought about all of this comes largely through a Christian tradition. It is normal in Christian writing to say that nearly every one of us, if we got what we really deserved, would be condemned. But the point of grace is that we are saved even though we don't deserve it. I don't know how mainstream it is, but there is a mystical tradition in St. Theresa of Avila, William Blake, and many others, who say that while it is Christ who grants grace, Christ only works through the actions of living people. With the conclusion being that it is the responsibility of each of us to save who we can, deserving or not. Is there a parallel tradition in Islam, I wonder? 

As to collective punishment from the virus: the trouble is that karma isn't properly distributed. Though everyone is guilty, some are way more guilty than others. The people with the least guilt (the poor and powerless) will suffer most, while the most guilty get early testing and superior health care. 

So I think we mustn't enjoy schadenfreude from natural disasters, as they don't bring about real justice. Anything which serves to intensify the evil results of our evil institutions (e.g. for-profit health care) can't be called good.

When I think about the poor and the tired -and I already have M.S btw- I think that the suffering is already bad with the virus. In other words; the rich are the ones who will pay the most.

The virus is wrecking havoc on the markets and the rich who spent decades collecting toiler paper made out of thin-air are the ones paying the most. They invested a lot in killing people and manufacturing guns; let them invest now in making face-masks and investing in finding a cure for all of us.

As to an Islamic parallel, I believe it is the total opposite in Islam's case; the Quran stresses that the condemned are guilty, there are some big sins defined in the Quran that shouldn't be done at all -but can be forgiven by God-, while "associating other Gods with God would never be forgiven",

Quoting the Quran:

Sura 4, The Quan:

( 48 )   Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.

The other risky sins:

Sura 25, The Quran:

( 68 )   And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity or kill the soul which Allah has forbidden [to be killed], except by right, and do not commit unlawful sexual intercourse. And whoever should do that will meet a penalty.
( 69 )   Multiplied for him is the punishment on the Day of Resurrection, and he will abide therein humiliated -
( 70 )   Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.

Many people deserve hell. How many killers I might say?

---

You cry because Coronavirus is killing some thousands of you.

But why didn't you cry for Chinese Uighur Muslims butchered by the communist government?
Why didn't you cry for the Millions in Syria killed by Assad?
Why didn't you cry for Millions killed in Yemen by Saudi/U.A.E airstrikes?
Why didn't you cry for thousands tortured in prisons of Saudi Arabia?

Does humanity of today deserve covid-19 ?
I say yes.
Millions would also say yes.

Just like when the Black Death came.

This is an impressive failure in morality, compassion, and even common sense.

Certainly there is suffering in the world. How will more suffering be an improvement?

Did you shed a tear for the Tibetan Buddhists slain by the Chinese? Do you weep for the Bahai or the Yazidi? Or do you only become indignant when it is your own that are harmed?

COVID-19 won't care whether you've been good or bad or which direction you pray. It will replicate in your lung tissue just as happily as mine. I don't think that either of us deserve that but you may be too much of a zealot to understand why I wouldn't wish you harm.

The mistake you made is that you considered "first world citizens" to be "third world citizens".
In other words: France and America are not Yemen or Syria.

---

In the old days I would've written an angry or sarcastic reply, but from where I am now, life is simply too short for engaging with some asshole's damaged personality

But these are the new days which saw a virus outbreak hitting the secular world.

[Gwaithmir]

You cry because Coronavirus is killing some thousands of you.

But why didn't you cry for Chinese Uighur Muslims butchered by the communist government?
Why didn't you cry for the Millions in Syria killed by Assad?
Why didn't you cry for Millions killed in Yemen by Saudi/U.A.E airstrikes?
Why didn't you cry for thousands tortured in prisons of Saudi Arabia?

Who says we didn't, you self-righteous asshole?