EvC Forum: God and viruses (namely AIDS)

Reading what Mr Jack wrote in Message 29, on the Why did Noah's descendents forsake God so quickly? thread, it made me think of this:

What is the Christian answer for why we have viruses, namely AIDS?

The AIDS virus has been traced to have been spread from chimp to man around the late 19th to early 20th century.
We know this because, found in Wiki,

Wiki writes:

HIV-1 is closely related to a virus found in chimpanzees, and molecular phylogenetics indicates that the HIV-1 virus appeared sometime between 1884 and 1924 in equatorial Africa.

To stray from a direct cut and paste, the usage of molecular phylogenetics has led top researchers to the conclusion that AIDS did indeed originate from primates. For a bible literalist, god had to have created the virus, since, according to them, He created all life.

As we know them, a virus can be classified as a life form:

Wiki writes:

Viruses consist of two or three parts: all viruses have genes made from either DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information; all have a protein coat that protects these genes; and some have an envelope of fat that surrounds them when they are outside a cell.

In a biblical literalist's view, this must mean that one of two things happened:
-1: At least one of the chimps aboard the Ark was stricken with the disease. (wasn't all evil supposed to be wiped from the earth?)

Genesis 6:7 writes:

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Then went ahead and put a sick monkey on the ark?

-2: God gave chimps the disease after the flood. (I will leave that to you to explain.)

In both of these scenarios, god inflicted us/chimps with this plague. How do you wrap your head around a god whom would put such a terrible disease like this on the planet? I understand the fall of man and being born into sin, but to put a disease on this planet that causes such slow and painful death? How can this be that of a loving god?

Now, you might want to argue the point that he gave it to simian's and it was our fault we got it. Then explain why he would have given such a deleterious disease to one of his creations.

I would prefer realistic answers as opposed to fanciful ones, so can this go in a science section?

(note: this is my first PNT, so if there are too many points of contention, we can whittle it down. Just let me know

)

Edited by hooah212002, : No reason given.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people
-Carl Sagan

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