Situation TODAY
Dear all
I received this email from a good friend of mine which I read with much interest. Many thanks for the writer to bring in many facts for the
reader to judge and come to a conclusion.
As a Buddhist I know about Karma and Vipaka and every action has an opposite reaction just to say in a few words.
Theruwan saranai
> Why has God forsaken humanity in the time of the Coronavirus Pandemic?
> By
>
>
> https://www.asiantribune.com/node/93690
>
> The horrifying tragedy that is unfolding before our very eyes worldwide but
> particularly in God fearing traditional Christian countries such as Italy,
> Spain, France, U.K., Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland,
> Austria, Norway and Sweden and the USA, raises fundamental questions not
> only in respect to humanity’s capacity to combat the spread of the
> coronavirus that has taken a huge toll of over 44, 000 fatalities and over
> 800,000 infections up to date, but also on the very existence of GOD on
> whom so much faith and trust has been placed by billions of people adhering
> to Abrahamic religions such as Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Islam
> and Judaism.
>
> Is the colossal damage being done globally by the Coronavirus pandemic
> evidence of God’s wrath or of God’s non – existence?
>
> Have any Church authorities up to date announced and stated that the
> Coronavirus Pandemic was nothing but a demonstration of God’s wrath and
> punishment for the sins of the victims? In the aftermath of the Lisbon
> Earthquake (1755) Church leaders did exactly just that. Explained away the
> destruction of Lisbon by a trio of natural disasters as a manifestation of
> God’s wrath.
>
> Is the God defying Coronavirus a form of Karmic Retribution targeting
> especially a number of select western countries that have a shared sordid
> past over a period of 500 years of rapacious colonialism all over the
> world, committing Genocide and Mass Murder against native people?
>
> Let alone Crimes against Humanity, what about Crimes against innocent
> animals which continue to this day in countries like Spain and Portugal
> where the barbaric Bull Fighting is treated as a popular sport and shown on
> prime time TV.
>
> Is this not an appropriate time for reflection and catharsis on the part of
> humanity all over the world, and particularly in countries badly affected
> by the Coronavirus pandemic ?
>
> The purpose of this brief article is to open and explore significant
> religious and philosophical issues that have arisen in the light of the
> bewildering and catastrophic Coronavirus Pandemic that continues to rage
> havoc with no end in sight.
>
> Points for reflection:
>
> 1) *Treatment of Animals*
>
> a) What we do to animals ruthlessly and brutally the Coronavirus is doing
> likewise to humans, generating so much fear, alarm and anxiety. Do humans
> deserve pity, when we have no pity for innocent animals, who are eternal
> victims of our cruelty and inhumanity?
>
> b) Should the yardstick of judging a civilization and its progress, be
> based on massive development projects, technological inventions and
> innovations, political achievements, literature OR how it treats all
> creatures, big and small, on earth humanely to the maximum possible extent?
>
> c) It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that a country’s progress should be
> judged by the way it treats its animals and all other living creatures.
> When someone asked him what he thought about Western civilization, his
> reply was: “It’s a good idea.”
>
> d) In other words, what Gandhi meant was that the West was not truly
> civilized, in a moral sense. If the West was civilized, would it have
> conquered, occupied and exploited Asian, and African countries and
> decimated the native people in the two Americas and Australia until they
> were almost extinct? And committed Crimes against Humanity, Mass Murder,
> and Genocide including Cultural Genocide?
>
> e) Many condemn racial discrimination, caste discrimination, and
> mistreatment of vulnerable communities but hardly bother to refer to
> abhorrent treatment and mass killing of animals on an industrial scale. Are
> these non – human living beings meant to be expendable at the discretion,
> whim and fancy of human beings?
>
> f) Recent expose of Wet Markets in Wuhan and other parts of China showed
> obnoxious eating habits and brutal slaughtering practices that by any
> definition would be classed as barbaric and primitive. Some Animals were
> shown plucked from the super market shelves and eaten alive. Anything that
> moves on legs, crawls, wriggles or swims (live or killed) is deemed fit for
> consumption.
>
> g) No health authority including the WHO has stated that flesh consumption
> is essential for human health survival. On the contrary there is enough
> evidence to show that meat consumption is the prime cause of many Chronic
> diseases such as cancers, type II diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular
> diseases (CVD).
>
> h) The biggest problem is that all those who consume and support the flesh
> consumption culture take the view uncritically and unscientifically that
> the earth belongs to humans and all other non – human living beings have no
> rights to live out their natural life to the fullest except to serve human
> needs and requirements including sacrificing their precious lives to fill
> the stomachs of humans.
>
> i) This indefensible view is largely influenced by the Biblical Injunction
> ‘Kill and Eat Flesh’.
>
> j) Ethically speaking it is an unsustainable argument. Buddhism in its very
> first precept rejects that view without qualification.
>
> k) The Buddhist approach of peaceful co- existence between man and animal
> is supported by Jainism and several Western Philosophers such as
> Schopenhauer and Albert Schweitzer (philosopher, theologian, organist and
> physician, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 )
>
> l) Albert Schweitzer made a remarkable statement when he said that “Until
> he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not
> himself find peace.” “A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the
> compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from
> injuring anything that lives.”
>
> m) Spain is one of the major victims of the Coronavirus Pandemic. As much
> as humanity would like to extend its moral support to the people of Spain
> to overcome this crisis without further suffering, it would be tantamount
> to a dereliction of moral duty if the very humanity were not to raise the
> issue of Bull – fighting in Spain. Bull fights are not ‘ fair fights’ but a
> highly staged form of Spanish Govt. subsidized animal cruelty that projects
> the misleading view that torturing and killing animals for fun and
> amusement is acceptable. Animal cruelty of this kind should have no place
> in our world today, even though it is presented as a deep – rooted Spanish
> cultural tradition and sanctioned by the Spanish Supreme Court.
>
> n) Every year, approximately 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights. The
> countries where this cruel practice still takes place are Spain, France,
> Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador. All of these
> Catholic countries are reeling today under the onslaught of the Coronavirus
> Pandemic in varying degrees of intensity.
>
> o) The detoxification of these countries to get rid of the coronavirus must
> also extend to scrapping the inhumane cruel practice of Bull Fights,
> falsely categorized as a Sport and which has brought nothing but shame and
> disgrace on both the Government and people of Spain.
>
> p) The lock down all over the world has confined the vast majority of
> humanity to their homes. It is discomforting and frustrating being caged,
> metaphorically speaking. Is this not exactly what humans do to animals by
> forcing them to live within small spaces in cages in a vast prison
> euphemistically called a Zoo for the whole of their natural lives? To serve
> a life instance without committing a crime. When will this injustice to
> animals be undone?
>
> 2. *Do Prayers work?*
>
> Do prayers work? Is God listening? How does one explain the silence of God
> at a time of mass upheaval and sorrow among believers who are dying in
> their thousands? Is the appeal to God through prayer to save the flock an
> exercise in futility? These are valid questions.
>
> Atheists, Agnostics and Pagans (their numbers are rising rapidly in Europe)
> are least troubled by these questions. The latest coronavirus related
> tragic events are an affirmation of their skepticism. It is more a
> challenge for the Believers.
>
> We in Sri Lanka have faced similar questions and underwent this exercise in
> the wake of the Easter Sunday bombing last year.
>
> On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three
> luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series
> of coordinated Islamic terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, there
> were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest
> house in Dehiwala. Two hundred and fifty-nine people were killed, including
> at least 45 foreign nationals and three police officers, and at least 500
> were injured. The church bombings were carried out during Easter services
> in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo.
>
> Like in the currently unfolding Coronavirus tragedy where the vast majority
> of the victims are citizens of predominantly Christian countries of Europe,
> the majority of the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday Attacks were ardent
> followers of Christianity, and praying in some of the hallowed Churches in
> the country e.g. St. Anthony’s Shrine (dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua
> and designated a national shrine and minor basilica), located at
> Kochchikade, Kotahena, Colombo 13.
>
> These acts of violence targeting mainly Christians on a special Christian
> holiday inside Christian churches invariably raised legitimate questions on
> God’s benevolence and its powers of divine intervention. Why did God fail
> in his own house i.e. the Church? And on one of Christianity’s holiest days
> i.e. Easter Sunday, where church attendance in Sri Lanka is very high.
>
> 3.* Does God Exist?*
>
> *Lisbon Earthquake (1755) and the Fall out on changing religious beliefs in
> Europe*
>
> It is said that one of the first modern atheistic movements in Europe
> commenced after this tragedy, renouncing religious ideologies as basis of
> critical thinking.
>
> We must go back in time. A terrible tragedy similar to the unfolding COVID
> – 19 Pandemic in Europe and other Western countries took place on a much
> bigger scale in Europe nearly 270 hundred years ago when Lisbon (capital of
> Portugal) was subject to a series of cataclysmic earthquakes on the morning
> of Sunday November 01, 1755, which was All Saints’ Day and many people were
> attending the Churches whose architecture and building structure was not
> resistant to seismic tremors.
>
> The earthquakes caused massive damage to the city of Lisbon and demolished
> around 12,000 households, killing over 60,000 people.
>
> This unfortunate coincidence of the earthquake on a Sunday was definitely
> one of the factors that had contributed to the extremely high death toll in
> this event, as the Christian devotees that stood between the weak walls of
> the churches were crushed in large numbers.
>
> The city walls, houses and buildings were not able to escape the 8.0
> magnitude of the earthquake. Almost 85% of Lisbon’s buildings were reduced
> to rubble.
>
> The earthquake had reportedly lasted about 5 minutes, causing 5-meter
> fissures in length which split-opened in the city center.
>
> In addition the tremors triggered three (3) tsunamis of 6 meter wave length
> which were flooding the region wave after wave, drowning and killing even
> more people.
>
> Fires broke out soon after the earthquakes killing a lot more people. The
> flames lasted for 5 days and destroyed many important documents and
> personal records of the Portuguese people. Many had died from inhaling the
> smoke and collateral damage.
>
> The resulting chaos forced the citizens, including prisoners that used
> their chance of escape, to flee the city.
>
> Survivors soon began questioning God’s existence and his absence at a time
> when God’s help was most needed to save lives. The scale of suffering
> opened up many issues among thinkers, the clergy, politicians, and
> philosophers.
>
> On the other hand, the Church authorities in Lisbon did actually announce
> and state that the earthquake was indeed a demonstration of God’s wrath and
> punishment for the sins of the victims.
>
> Amusingly, the sinful Lisbon’s red-light district had suffered only minor
> damages while the churches despite the purported piety were completely
> obliterated.
>
> The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 exerted a great cultural, religious and
> political impact. Europe was stunned by the merciless destruction of one of
> the continent's most opulent cities. Leading intellectual and philosophical
> figures—Voltaire, Rousseau, Pope, Goethe and Kant, among others—became
> fascinated by the question of divine intervention in human affairs. Lisbon,
> still home to the Inquisition, had been immolated: was this evidence of
> God's wrath or of God's nonexistence?
>
> The Lisbon Earthquake also opened the door to new genre of literature
> questioning God and wisdom of relying solely on God and engaging in recital
> of prayers. Renowned French writer and philosopher Voltaire produced a
> classic piece of satirical writing called ‘Candide’ (1759). The events
> discussed in the novel are often based on historical happenings, such as
> the ‘Seven Years’ War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Voltaire ridicules
> religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers.
> *Candide *satirizes various philosophical and religious theories that
> Voltaire had previously criticized including the belief in God. . .
> Portugal and Spain were the two main centers of the Catholic Inquisition,
> which lasted for several centuries.
>
> Though confined mainly to Europe, the Portuguese nevertheless introduced
> the Inquisition to countries in its Asian Empire such as Goa and Ceylon
> (later known as Sri Lanka). The Inquisition is infamous for its persecution
> of heretics which extended to Muslims and Jews in Europe, and Hindus and
> Buddhists in Goa and Ceylon.
>
> Though both Portugal and Spain amassed great wealth during their hey days
> as empire builders they remained backward countries slow to evolve morally
> and ethically and distance themselves from barbaric cultural traditions
> such as Bull – fights. Unlike their neighbours in Northern Europe which
> broke away from the diktat of the Vatican, both Portugal and Spain together
> with Italy were unfortunately held captive for a long time in a
> stranglehold of religious dogma.
>
> There was an intellectual aftermath of the Lisbon Earthquake disaster all
> over Europe. The cataclysm resulted in widespread Enlightenment discussions
> about God and the natural world.
>
> *Conclusion*
>
> The tragedy of the Coronavirus Pandemic has already rocked the world
> prompting wide ranging intellectual debates about the natural world and
> God’s place in human affairs. A new world order is emerging that can be
> expected to be vastly different to the one that is being left behind.
>
> It is already attracting widespread attention and speculation among
> thinkers and policy makers. Would God continue to remain at the apex of the
> moral and spiritual world despite rising misgivings in the mono – theistic
> Abrahamic world?
>
> Buddhism has shown that it is possible to establish a highly effective and
> admirable ethical system for humanity with benefits for all living beings
> seen as members of one moral universe, without reference to an all mighty
> creator God.
>
> What will replace God if the belief in God becomes increasingly
> unsustainable in the wake of catastrophes such as the Coronavirus Pandemic?
>
> - Asian Tribune -
>
> See also
> Voltaire laments the destruction of Lisbon in an earthquake and criticises
> the philosophers who thought that “all’s well with the world” and the
> religious who thought it was “God’s will” (1755)