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, 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: 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?) 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.

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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

see edited message 1

So then you are an Old Earth Creationist? You believe this virus evolved on it's own or was created by god himself? Ok, I should not have used the terms interchangeably. I should have said non-human primates. True. Good point. Ok, maybe it doesn't exactly SAY evil exactly. However, is it not assumed that the flud was a fresh start? Isn't that the argued purpose of the flud? Why carry over disease and pestilince? So do you assert that the AIDS virus evolved? Where did I say anything about Job? I requested this to be in the science section for a reason...... And THAT is precisely the point I am trying to make. How can you claim a just, fair, loving god when he (according to my understanding of what literalists would say) created such a vile, painful disease? and may His Noodly Holiness touch you.

From the Wiki article regarding the Oral Polio Vaccine theory: Here is the extract from the article in Nature they refer to: So that theory has been refuted.While I agree that mankind has been pretty careless in nature and with disease control, such is not the case here.Edited by hooah212002, : fixed quote

I'm not going to play "who has a better link" with you. I showed you an article from a well respected source.I will take your answer to my initial question to be: man did it. Fair enough. You can believe as you wish. Even though well respected scientists and the scientific community seem to think otherwise. People that don't subscribe to crackpot ideas that have been disproven.I followd the links in that PDF to find this: a paper that was submitted to Science, and rejected. It seems, according to your source, that numerous attempts to publish this theory have been rejected. But it's a conspiracy, right? Scientists are out to kill humanity?

Well now, that is quite the odd position for a biblical literalist to take. Or are you not a literalist? (honest question, no offense) That's nice that you believe that, but I specifically requested the science section for a reason. I'm not going to argue with you about your belief system. Well then. So AIDS is ok for a punishment? Have you seen what AIDS causes? Have you ever met anyone with the disease? What action would warrant that sort of "punishment"? What in the bloody hell are you implying? It's ok for god to be a prick? Again, this is what I am trying to wrap my head around: how can you christians accept that your god does this crap and still say he loves you?And since you keep asserting that maybe satan did it: you also assert that satan has the same ability as god? gee, some god he is.

Well, I guess it both
A) Depends on how old you think the earth is
and
B) depends how long ago you believe the flud happened (although, the generally accepted timeframe is ~4000 years IIRC)Having said that, it is found that the originating virus, prosimian immunodeficiency virus (pSIVgml), which is the most likely ancestor to HIV, arose around 4.2 million years ago. This info can be found hereSo again I ask: why was it on the ark? (that is, if you believe in an old earth) or did it get wiped from modern primates during the flood, only to be reintroduced? This brings in, IMO, too many "goddidits" or "satandiddits", which can be neither proven, nor disproven. On the contrary: I referred to my question in my OP. This is true. The bible makes no mention of viruses. I never said it was. But, as I am trying to point out, one of the primates aboard the ark must have been carrying the disease in order for it to be prevalent today. Are you going to claim satan chose which animals that boarded the ark?

And no one has proven that god or satan exist either, but you allow that argument? I am asking based on the assumption that bible believers believe both to be real. I don't believe EITHER exist, so I'm not going to try and prove they do. I don't think it did happen, but the people I am directing this post to seem to think it did happen.....literally. Again, I'm working based on my assumption that they believe it. The validity of the flud is not on trial here, that should be another thread, yes? I have seen NUMEROUS, extremely long threads arguing FOR the existence of the ark. I have also seen quite the following of evangelicals who think it to be a real event. A cursory search at Answers In Genesis will tell you this. It is those people that follow the same train of thought that I am directing this to. Why try to bother with the exact details if its a myth? I don't believe it to be true, but obviously some people here do. This we can agree on. However, there seem to be plenty of people who get rather irritated if you say the flud is a myth or allegorical. Heck, That boat don't float is at 259 posts. Quite a few if it was agreed by all to be just a myth, don't you think? Why bother with exact details if its just a myth? I don't believe it to be true, but obviously some people here do. And I repeat: I wanted to know how they were able to cope with that. I have shown how long the virus has been around. Evidence shows it has been around longer than the alleged flud. If the answer remains "goddidit" or satandidit", I guess this should have went to faith and belief section, eh? Or just close the thread since it really isn't going anywhere? I don't believe it is/was real, so your trying to get blood from a turnip here. On this, we can agree. I also believe the story to reference a local flood, if anything at all.I see we are just going to go round and round, going no where. I should have said Creationists, but it wanted feedback from all christians just to get a better understanding, hence the reason I even come here, to learn the ways of the dark side.I didn't think I would encounter this sort of hassle trying to incorporate real events/science into learning the bible, since the whole premise of the ID/creation movement is to do just that. Isn't that what this site is about?

I suppose i was too vague. I should have directed this towards Young Earth Creationists. Then I could have requested how they go about the fact that this virus has been shown to have been around for so long. I didn't realize that I was both trying to get information that is not there, while seemingly attacking a belief.Lock this, or I can maybe start a new one thread that subject, unless someone else cares to chime in.Edited by hooah212002, : No reason given.