In late 2019 and early 2020, the human population of the world has come under attack of a novel viral infection with a combination of being more contagious, hardier, and deadlier than any recently known illness. As our world has grown more interconnected economically, culturally, and politically, it has done so similarly from a public health standpoint. Infectious particles are shared more readily due to ease of travel today than at any point in history. Like it or not, our technology has connected us so intimately that the phrase “we are all in this together” applies to all borders of our world.
The damage to our communal health has already been poignant at the time of this writing, with the likely potential that we remain far from the worst of what this virus will bring. Globally, thousands of lives have ended, and healthcare resources are past their breaking points as Italy has exempted graduating medical students from boards in order to push them into the front lines immediately, regardless of how under-prepared students are coming right out of school. Our societal norms have come to a screeching halt as schools, restaurants, and many retail stores have closed doors for at least a few weeks, with probably longer to come. As many of us already suffer from social isolation, many more now join those ranks, cut off from our daily habitual stops at coffee shops, the workplace, artistic and musical displays, sporting events, etc. For a species meant to live in community, we have had to essentially strip that identity from ourselves in order to persevere to a day where we can resume life of old.
Coinciding with social isolation is the economic fallout. Our service-based economy depends on social interaction, whether it be food service, entertainment venues, personal care appointments, travel, or leisure. Self-isolation allows for much of the economy to continue functioning as more of us work from home, but it leaves a major part of it workerless. As markets plunge in ways not seen for many decades, one prominent investor, while suggesting the USA “shut down” for a month, used the phrase “hell is coming” to describe the financial prospects in the near future. That may not be hyperbole for many people who find themselves out of work, unable to pay routine bills or debts. In North Carolina, applications for unemployment benefits have shot up in a matter of days. The uncertainty pertaining to the length of mass isolation has an exhausting, nerve-racking effect on all of us, but much more so on those of us who haven’t a clue when the next time they can go to work may be.
For many people, hell is not coming, but rather it has arrived. Lost human connection, lost daily purpose of work, lost security in a reliable income, and unknown concern for our health and our neighbors’ would be a form of hell. All this from a particle measuring 120 nanometers, only seen by an electron microscope. How did this thing get here? Pandemics as this one come around every several years, usually not lasting long enough to make the whole world stop in its tracks. This one has.
Many of these contagious viruses originate in animal species. Humans have a routine collection of coronaviruses that circulate only among humans and cause common colds, and many animals have their own sets of coronaviruses. Very rarely, a virus that is specific for an animal species will mutate into a form that can infiltrate human populations. That is what happened with the MERS and SARS epidemics of recent decades. Per the CDC, all these viruses have their origins in bats. In this case, many believe that the outbreak began in a large animal market in Wuhan, where many live animals are caged in close quarters, ready to be sold for food or medicinal purposes. While common in China, these markets are not solely found in China, but can be found in other parts of Asia and Africa. While first world countries do not organize animal markets in a similar style and setting as other poorer nations, they still maintain animal trade as a significant contributor to the economy. So essentially all nations participate in some form of animal market. The idea that this virus came from a bioterror lab, rather than an animal market, is not ruled out as the WHO tries (and fails) to get to the bottom of the origins of the virus. The fact is, whether harvested from a lab or a market, the virus originates in bats and then “jumps species” to infect humans.
If one is following the storyline of the first few pages of the Bible, it should come as no surprise that there is a direct link between the arrest and utilization by death of animal species and what we find ourselves in today. We opt for our own understanding of what is best for us and our families and neglect what has been provided for us as the ideal Order in which we were placed. We decline the vision of a place where the fruit-bearing plants are the only things we need to live the lives we were meant to live. We decline the role of being caretakers of the animals and their lands, which were meant to provide their nourishment. Instead we choose their blood to immediately satiate our appetites. The Ideal state is given to us as long as we choose God’s wisdom and decline our own version of what appears good in our eyes. Just like the innumerable times before us that humans have chosen their version of the Good, so have we.
As I have stated before, I don’t think Genesis 1 is meant simply to give us a direct, clean portrayal of what we should be doing within our cultures. That is what we would want of any written piece as modern readers. That is what makes good communication to us: concise, direct statements of what is expected of us and what we can expect. The primary purpose of the story is directed to the critical point in the Garden of humans having to choose between God’s wisdom and their own. I think, beyond the crucial test in the middle of the Garden, there are things being told to us in this story about how we are to interact with the earth on which we are placed. The wisdom and knowledge of these writings permeates all times and cultures, because they speak to the essence of the human experience, which doesn’t change, no matter what point of technological advancement we have achieved. The manner in which we interact with animals, whether by God’s standard as co-dwellers of the earth, with animals and humans providing for the other so they may live out their true created identities, or by our standard of taking what we see as good and manipulating it in whichever manner we see would best suit our desires for control and comfort, will go a long way in determining whether we can maintain a functional ecosystem for continuing existence, or whether we decide to bring hell directly to us.
On a recent reading of Genesis, I noticed that the Garden inside of Eden wasn’t created until the second chapter, after the symmetry of Genesis 1 had already been laid out. The second account has a more specific narrative pattern to tell the story of the first humans and their created home in this garden in Eden, which we frequently assume to be the perfect, ideal situation for us that we screwed up by taking from the wrong tree. The first account seems more distant from the specific story. It rather has a more general tone to it, describing the common creation outside of the proper place of Eden. We may tend to think that the Eden ideal is not worth trying to get back to, as we have and will fail to reach that goal of complete unity of mind with the creator god. One may argue that we ought still to strive to this goal for myriad reasons, though let’s say it isn’t worth the effort to go for this level of “perfection” in our world with inevitable failure in the shadows. We are still left with the creation model of Genesis 1, outside of the garden temple, yet still within the confines of our surrounding world. As we surely find ourselves outside of Eden, we might be able to relate to the Genesis 1 creation narrative more so than Genesis 2. That is a more direct instruction on the structure of life within the created world, clearly stating humans are to eat seed-bearing plants and animals are to eat the green grasses of the field.
Following the guidance of eating the seed-bearing plants can improve our chances of leading lives free from heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, etc, and it can enable us to have bodies capable of amazing feats of strength and endurance. These ideas are commonly conveyed in books on the subject. What we don’t often think about are those zoonotic infections that arise from time to time in our environments, which are commonly derived from improper use of animals by humans. They don’t come around very often, but when they do they can create complete chaos and destruction of what humans have built up. This can be seen as a consequence of inadequate relationship within creation, failing to live according to what has been arranged for us. We can create hell as a present reality in which we may wander around hopelessly. We can also allow for the creation of heaven similarly.