The Big Big Thread of Religious Discussion

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Tydeus

A Question to the theists here: Why do we have viruses?

*raises hand* Question: Are we allowed to believe in a god and the concept of evolution? You know, that all life on Earth developed from single-celled microbes all the way to humans and cows and trees and Twiddy because it was the will of some higher consciousness? I mean, because I do. Hell, if I were God, that's totally how I would go about making worlds, you know?

Furthermore, is it cool to believe that maybe what we would consider "God" is neither good nor evil, just a neutral, organized force that keeps the entire scope of existance from falling into total entropy? You know, and maybe that this God doesn't value one form of life over another, so it's totally cool that a virus pretty much destroys everything around it in order to grow and reproduce, in a manner similar to, say, humankind.

I don't really get why, in order to believe in a higher being such as God, you have to subscribe to every single tenet of a specific organized religion. Furthermore, I don't understand why the obvious recourse to so many people here is to blame a spiritual idea for the actions of the manmade organization that, more often than not, manipulates that idea to suit their less-than-altruistic goals.

But I digress. To answer your question, Tydeus, I believe there are viruses in existance because they have as much right to exist as we do. Should medical science find a way to eradicate any or all strains of viruses from the face of the planet, then I guess viruskind is SOL. It's conflict, you see, a motivating force. The constant need to sustain one's own survival and the survival of the species promotes growth and advancement. Why, if we didn't have microscopic organisms trying to kill us from within, we'd have no reason to create technology allowing us to look at not only the virulent kinds of microbes, but the countless other forms of microscopic life out there. We learn more, get smarter, pass on the knowledge, develop it into new and wondrous things.

If it weren't for that sort of challenge, we'd be sitting naked in caves banging rocks together or something.