I came across article earlier this week and thought it would be interesting to share here. I've seen many religious people speculate biblical reasons for the occurrence of this pandemic and it's nationally radiating consequences on everyday life.
However, this article investigates an interesting topic: Many godless people still find that things "Happen for a reason" and conclusively asks the question: "What do we learn from times of pestilence?"
Click here to read this article in The Irish Times.
My takeaway is this --
While I find that I identify with a secular way of life, I do also find that I ultimately believe that things happen for a reason; though mostly as a direct consequence from previous actions and not in the spiritual or supernatural nuance that often saturates the conceptualization of events and circumstances being fated, or likewise being rewards or punishments from a higher power.
However, this gets really challenging for me when I put this up against tragedies, and I'm still fine tuning my own belief systems all time. So I would like to know what you all think. But as the aforementioned questions asks, "What do we (society) learn from times of pestilence?"
- Perhaps, in regards to the current pandemic, this can be a reflection of the need for reforms in universal healthcare, as we are seeing first hand that health is directly collective & communal and should not be a class based privilege. A poor person can get a rich person sick, a rich person can get a poor person sick. We're all in this together, but only one side often is provided and afforded the resources they need. Or possibly the need for minimum wage reforms as we are witnessing thousands of "essential employees" risking their health and safety to keep the community functioning at it's most basic levels (keeping grocery stores stocked, for example) all while earning an unlivable wage. The people who have had to keep working, even when they don't want to - because they are not paid enough to afford the luxury of a savings.
Does some good come from most tragedy? Is that not to say that things happen for a reason - so long as we are open to receive it?
I think there is good in everything to some extent. Not necessarily enough to make up for the bad at times, but it is still there. There is so much that we cant control, and when bad things happen there is not always a way to come out on top of it all.
ReplyDeleteEverything happens from some cause, that's the Principle of Sufficient Reason. But that's not what most religious people mean when they say "Everything happens for a reason"... They mean everything is subtended by a divine Plan and Purpose that somehow rationalizes pandemics and plagues and tornadoes and human cruelty and all the rest as somehow necessary and good, though we mere finite mortals can't see it. Bollocks, I say (or would, if I were British).
ReplyDeleteI do not think there is good in everything. There was no good in the Holocaust. There is no good in the painful death of an innocent child.
But I do think experience is a great teacher, and the "good" to be harvested from this pandemic (for example) will surely take the form of better preparedness for the next one. And maybe also a greater future reluctance to place incompetent people in positions of power because we "want to shake things up."
So, some tragedies can ultimately bring about some good, but I remain committed to the belief that fewer tragedies will ultimately bring about more.