Covid-19 is not a punishment of God for our personal sins but it might be the revenge of nature

(‘Totally misinterpreted’ — DUP councillor John Carson who blamed Coronavirus on abortion and gay marriage says comments were picked up wrong)

Apart from the dubious implication that what happens in our great wee province determines the fate of the world, why has God waited so long to act?

Abortion was legalised in England and Wales in 1967 and it is less restrictive than here (legal up to 24 weeks as opposed to 12). Why did God not punish the world 50 years ago? Do we conclude that Northern Ireland was ‘the last straw’?

And what about all those places where abortion is illegal except in extreme cases? Why should they be punished for the sins of others?

As for same sex marriage, it is illegal in most non-european countries, yet covid-19 is rife in many, for example, Iran. Indeed homosexuality itself is illegal in many of these states, yet they have not escaped the pandemic.

The biggest puzzle of all is what Carson’s assertion implies about the morality of God. Abortion is supposedly a breach of God’s commandment: “thou shalt not Kill”. Yet apparently God is exempt from his own rule and is permitted to kill on a massive and indiscriminate scale.

There are more holes in Carson’s logic than in a plate of macaroni.Yet what is certainly true is that the human species has been carelessly invading the ecological habitat of other species and exploiting animals with no respect for their integrity.

The illusion of the earth and her creatures as raw material to be used for profit and pleasure has created a world connected through disease and environmental disaster.

Thus covid-19 is not a punishment of God for our personal sins but in a sense the revenge of nature for our selfish pillage of the planet.

Brian McClinton, Editor, Irish Freethinker, Lisburn