Is this God's plan

I am always slightly wary about pronouncements about what god would want us to do - they tend to be things that the speaker wants!

keepingquiet I’m not a believer, but I really appreciate your explanation of your personal journey.

Pretty much every religion in the world has ascribed natural disasters, such as earthquakes and drought, and death and disease, whether to humans, animals or crops, to being direct divine punishment for intolerable human misbehaviour. The definitions of this behaviour vary from culture to culture and from century to century, although there is a common thread of the god or gods being angry because they have not received enough adoration, attention and obedience.

The way I see it (as I don't believe in God) is that we brought it on ourselves. People are greedy and incredibly stupid. What other creature destroys it's own habitat?

Chinese subsistence farmers were forced off their land by commercial chicken 'farmers' (factories, really) and went further into wild forest land, invading the natural territory of creatures who carried the virus.

It was hardly a surprise, was it? We'd been expecting and planning for the next pandemic of some sort. It won't be the last, either.

Pandemics are part of our existence. We may never accurately and fully know how this one began. I fear we will have forgotten all about how we let this one spread by the time the next one comes around...

I believe we live in a very selfish society and this pandemic has brought it to the fore. People not obeying rules, looking for loopholes to get round them. It's a me, me ,me society and I find it very sad. God gave us the freedom to look after the world and what have we done? We are on the road to ruining it. I understand all your valid opinions and thank you for your answers. It's good that people can agree to disagree without any animosity

There's plenty on the internet about how the world will eventually destroy itself by one means or another. I think it's in the Bible too.
Could our current C19 plague be the start of our annihilation? The dinasours got wiped out so why not humans?
I certainly don't think the world will ever be a "better place". There is a tsunami of vile life out there so who can turn that particular tide?
I'm sorry for the folk who strive to bring up decent children/grandchildren. I fear there is little hope that good in generations to come, will prevail. I don't think it's got anything to do with God.
Sorry to sound depressive. I'm just glad I won't live to see it but I'll watch from afar!

The ten plagues of Egypt:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442724/

Call me deluded but I do believe that the world can become a “better place”. I think humans instinctively do care for one another, this is how we have survived.

I have seen many instances of this selflessness during the pandemic, so I do hope for a better future, and that we will learn from this.

Nostradamus predicted many deaths not caused by war.

Nonogran

Could our current C19 plague be the start of our annihilation Its not a plague, and probably not, seeing as how 99% of people recover and we already have vaccines and treatments.

The dinosaurs got wiped out so why not humans? That was a comet, not an illness. Lots of species get wiped out, and we're doing a sterling job of wiping out species at the moment, without any devine intervention. By the way, I was feeding the dinosaurs in my garden this morning. They didn't all disappear.

The world is significantly better place for most people that it was 100 years ago and the "tsumani of vile life" are more than balanced by the many many good people who are trying to make things better.

You may have given up on humanity, I haven't.

Shropshirelass Nostradamus predicted just about everything that could possible happen anywhere at any time, but he did it so obscurely that his predictions could be interpreted however the reader wished to understand them.

If an nfinite number of monkeys were given an infinite number of typewriters and allowed to tap at them for an infinite length of time, they would eventually type out the whole bible, Old and New Testaments plus Revelations.

Just wondering if any other gransnetters have received postal communication from Jehovah Witnessers!!! I had a letter addressed to householder and my correct address advising me to read bible, and discover what’s happening to the world!! And it was from my friend Margaret?????? Handwritten and 2nd class stamp! And no senders address? They might have included a return address and I could have replied. What’s that all about! JWs always get short shift from me when they appear uninvited on my doorstep uninvited! Nothing better to do I guess now they can’t come to the house and get shouted at!!

It is part of their programme of Witnessing. Interesting they have taken to letter writing. They prey on the vulnerable and attempt to frighten people with their nonsense.

This pandemic is certainly of biblical proportions and more. I can’t remember any pandemic like it. The polio pandemic was nothing compared with this though I think the influenza pandemic of 1918 was probably similar though not so widespread, more Europe. The question is whether or not it was started by natural means, by accident from a lab or, hopefully not, deliberately. We will never know. God knows though because He knows everything before it even happens.

The WHO have investigated and are pretty sure that it happened by accident.

Thank you Keepingquiet for your explanation.

We had this conversation last week DH and I. Hopefully we will try and live our lives better but some will still be as selfish as they have been. Surely this awful time will of counted for something?

That reassures Elegran. It has been on my mind a lot lately.

The 1918-1920 influenza epidemic was much more widespread than just Europe nanna8. India alone lost nearly 17 million people in less than 2 years.

2.1% of the world's population died in the flu epidemic. So far, with Covid, 0.03% of the world's population have died, about 2 million people.

AIDS has killed 34 million people, and is still classed as an epidemic.

A lot of folk say this.. it God isn’t a benevolent Dad who put things right in the world, he has given free will and we live in a world with lots to negotiate. The good and the bad comes along, faith means that God is in it with us, suffering is part of living, but my faith means The Lord walks with me and helps me to engage in life with his strength and to be in it with others. We find how to have courage, how to share with others, how to pray and get close to others as we work through. Faith means being tested in adversity too.

One more thing... I have seen an overwhelming lot of good will coming from this time of the pandemic. People singing to others, streets of people doing good for each other, technology has been so beautiful in keeping us communicating and people want to do this. We have found a new generation of care and love. This is the strong message from the pandemic: love one another, and we have found this to be so, the Lord is in it with us!

Elegran

The WHO have investigated and are pretty sure that it happened by accident.

I don’t believe the WHO. They didn’t do a proper and thorough investigation by all accounts. The Chinese didn’t want them to look too deeply into the possible theory of a lab leak, so they didn’t.

And no, as I said up thread, this pandemic has got absolutely nothing to do with God.

Violence, greed, drugs and immortality are still alive and well, sadly. The pandemic will have done nothing to stop that. In my opinion, the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. The wishy-washy investigation by the WHO was inconclusive as the Chinese made sure it would be. God has had nothing to do with it.