Did God create Coronavirus?

[NowSissyThatWalk]

I'd really like to have a respectful discussion if possible!
I'm an atheist. I've seen a lot of churches etc posting on our local pages offering live services/ prayers etc.
I have to ask and I'm too scared to ask them directly
Surely if God created all, and is master of all our fates, he created Coronavirus? Or is it one of those 'We are in charge of our own destiny, he can't stop bad things from happening' situations?
Genuinely interested and hope this is taken in the vein it's intended.

Isn't God, in the context OP means, a way to explain things in the past that we hadn't the real scientific enquiry to understand? We needed crops to grow and didn't understand the arbitrary nature of things so prayed to something more powerful than us (that to me is key - the idea of more powerful is the human desire to believe there is someone in charge, who understand what s going on, an authority)

Conversely, simple phenomena like people dying from consuming poisonous plants/materials meant we identified a 'negative' (evil, Satan, whatever you call it) and attributed the negative in life as a creation of theirs. In a way to calm our fears, answer things we couldn't understand fully and enable us to get on with normal life.

It is the way the human psyche deals with things it cannot comp-rehend/reason out.

On balance, it has probably been the thing that has stopped us going mad or attacking one another in the last few centuries. Not all bad.

This planet is under our stewardship and we aren't doing a very good job, to be honest. God is not going to intervene as we have free will and must tackle these challenges ourselves, he did give us brains after all! Terrible things will still happen, it's up to us how we respond.

Yup.

Why does everyone assume that 'God' is obsessively focused on human life? Perhaps the 'God' who created everything is actually quite hacked off at that part of creation that appears to be hell-bent on messing it all up for the rest of creation.

Oh, and, if God created Mankind, then, yes, God also created Coronavirus. Perhaps, in the mind of a Deity, they are of equal value. Who can know? Other than as an intellectual exercise to while away a few minutes, who cares? There's living to be done.

From what I was taught at a Christian school, God knows what will happen and has the power to change it. So if God exists he/she/it can fuck right off. 🖕 To you, God.

Oh, goodness!

Yes, there's an inherent tension between there being an all-knowing and omnibenevolent deity and there being unneccesary sufferingbin the world.

But, do we really have to look at this though the CV lens?

I mean, I'm an atheist, too, and I love a good old debate on philosophical principles normally.

But let's just band together and get through this as best we can, shall we?

ETA: pls forgive typos, on phone ...

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Epicurus, 3rd century BCE

Nobody has said what I feel about a god better than Stephen Fry when he was interviewed by Gay Byrne:

This is the trouble with personifying that which is greater. You do need to define god first if you want a sensible answer.

For me this virus is an awesome (in the old sense) demonstration of the truth of Darwin's teachings. I've been having some fun pointing out to conspiracy theorists who claim to atheism that they're assuming the existence of a creator because they don't fully comprehend how evolution works.

People have every right to say 'I dont believe in God' and then contribute to ops question. Coming on here and going 'god isnt real' though is NOT the same thing. It's just being a knob for the sake of being a knob.

How is saying 'God isn't real' any more knobbish than saying 'God is real'? Both statements are giving opinions as though they are fact. The difference being, of course, that no proof is possible or required for the non-existence of a thing. The burden of proof is on the person who is claiming the existence of something (for which, in the case of deities, there is no proof).
Religious people often accuse atheists of stating the absence of god as a fact. However, religious people also do this all the time themselves. Every time they say something like "God loves me" or "God has a plan", "God created us" or "God answered my prayer". These are statements which assert god's existence by factually claiming he has done things. I don't remember hearing anyone say "I think god loves me, if he exists, which I think he does".

Besides, if you are absolutely solidly sure of the existence of an all-powerful god who loves and protects you why on earth would a few atheists saying 'God doesn't exist' matter to you?! Is people's faith that fragile?

No. Mother Earth did. Listen.

@SilverySurfer so you know for certain there is God do you? Wow you must be clever. I can respect that people do not believe in God but have no respect whatsoever for those who insist they know there is no God.

@lazylinguist
My thing with atheists is that if you don’t believe in God, why spend so much time thinking and arguing about something you reportedly don’t believe to even exist.

I don’t spend any time debating the existence of aliens or other religions.

Also there is a difference between

• I don’t believe in God

&

• God doesn’t exist.

The fact that you spend so much time turning and twisting about the existence of God should tell you something ...

My thing with atheists is that if you don’t believe in God, why spend so much time thinking and arguing about something you reportedly don’t believe to even exist.

Because it affects me and mine. Worship in schools. My FIL's girlfriend insisting on talking about praying in relation to Covid yesterday to my child. The House of Lords. The national anthem. It's in everything.

lynsey91
@SilverySurfer so you know for certain there is God do you?

No, quite the reverse. I'm pretty sure there is NO god.

It's in everything.

Why does that matter? A long as there are alternatives for non-believers, why does it matter to you so much what other people believe?

As atheists, you're not alone in feeling uncomfortable with all the Goddishness. Even people of faith, particularly of other, non-Christian, faiths, can find it uncomfortable to have Christian Goddishness shoved in their faces at every turn. But they do not demand that everything should be arranged to suit their faith or unfaith position.

Why can't fervent atheists live and let live?

I don’t believe God created the coronavirus or that it’s his will. I also don’t believe that all this is happening for a reason. I do believe in God though.

Faith is not certainty so whilst I believe in God I also know I can’t prove his existence. I feel that is a slightly different stance to an atheist saying “there’s no God. HTH”

I don’t think God created the virus. I’m a priest and if I heard anyone at my church saying that I think I would challenge them. We are working really hard to help people affected by the virus.
Many of our congregation are elderly, lonely or vulnerable and it’s been a heartbreaking week for them.

I'm an atheist too but hate questions like this. Just let people believe what they want to believe.

My thing with atheists is that if you don’t believe in God, why spend so much time thinking and arguing about something you reportedly don’t believe to even exist.

Well, firstly, I personally don't spend very much time at all thinking and arguing about it. Just occasionally when a conversation or thread pops up about it. Not sure what makes you think you have any clue how much or little time the average atheist devotes to thinking about religion.

Secondly, it is worth spending some time thinking about, because it's been an absolutely huge part of human history and culture and tells us interesting things about human beings and the way they interpret and deal with the world, as well as how they have used religion to wield power and influence. Plus for some atheists in various parts of the world, it still has a small or even a big impact on how their country and education system are run.

Old testament God created pestilence, plague etc. He did it when we did things that fucked him off. Old testament god isn't that nice a guy tbf