So what is a good God to do? Perhaps the better question is what do we do? For example, we deal with children we love and want the best for. Does a good God do away with us so as to wipe the slate clean of evil, or does God put up with a certain amount of evil in order to allow the good to prosper? It seems that the second option is the one God usually takes. Perhaps the most obvious example is us! We who are capable of such good, and of producing such beauty are the same people who choose to make war with each other, and engage in other evil activities. Viruses may appear to have no good purpose but even now scientists have begun to use the machinery of viruses to target and kill cancer cells, to treat a variety of genetic diseases as gene and cell therapy tools, or to serve as vaccines or vaccine delivery agents. Bacteria which in one context deal with rotting organic matter releasing vital nutrients back into the ground to be used again by living plants are essential and good in this context, but destructive and 'bad' when they invade a living person causing sickness and death.

Knives are very useful when preparing food but can be used to perform evil deeds. Many things which appear evil in one context appear good in another. The Book of Job, dating back to some time around the 6th century BC, examines the tragedy befalling a godly man, leading to his questioning of God. For centuries and, indeed, the earliest examples go back to the Bible itself where whole books of the OT are devoted to the question. However, we must take account of the possibility of human collusion since it seems likely that poor safety standards around wet markets in China allowed the virus to jump species and infect humans.Įven so, what God would allow such a thing? For centuries, this question has been raised as a general objection to belief in a good God. Of course, this assumes that Covid is evil. There are many who would condemn a God who would allow something like Covid to run rampant through this world.įor them a God who allows this is not worthy of believing or following. Can the Covid-19 virus be considered evil? Photo: Getty ImagesHow do you define evil, Richard Dawson asks.

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