THE INTELLIGENT VIRUS AND THE ORIGINAL SIN 

At this point, always from an intelligent virus’s point of view and that is it supports nature’s “inteligence”, it’s as if “ Nature” had decided to raise its voice so that human beings could, at last, hear it.

“For this purpose” it has “sent” [1]  Coronavirus at high virulence and high enough mortality. Now nature has been heard in a really surprising way and has affected even those who had denied the power of the virus [2] with a typically human arrogance.

If we return to the idea  of Nature as God and the Original Sin as the passing from monkey to man, in Catholic religion the primordial fault is cancelled with the Holy Baptism. But here there is the misunderstanding. The fault is cancelled with the sacrament of Baptism, but not the temporal penalty. The same happens with confession when the sinner, with a sincere repentance, is forgiven with the sacrament.

The forgiveness of sins doesn’t automatically remove penalty, even if the latter, from the very serious Canonical Penalty of the first Christian communities, has been diminishing more and more nearly to disappear nowadays.[3], [4].

But in order to relieve the burden of penance for confessed sins Catholic Church has progressively developed the doctrine of indulgence, that is the remission of penances or temporal penalties that have still to be expiated for the sins already remitted as far as the offence of the fault and eternal penalty. In fact absolution cancels the “fault” and the eternal penalty of damnation for mortal sins, while indulgence removes temporal penalt [5]

On Friday 27^th February 2020 Pope Francesco gave plenary indulgence to all Christians [6]. Giving Christians penalty indulgence for all their sins doesn’t mean they can go on sinning, that is break Nature’s laws because, always referring to Christianity and Catholic Religion, when Jesus forgave the adulteress, he didn’t say to her “now go and do what you want”, but he said the famous words “go and from now on don’t sin anymore”[7].

Out of any metaphor, personally, we consider Original Sin as the passing from monkey to man and  that is when man stopped (as monkey) conforming to Nature’s laws and started (as man) not obeying such laws anymore.

So the present pandemia should represent, in accordance with this metaphor, the penalty, or better the retribution that Nature-God inflicts on man for the latter’s sins he made by breaking its laws.

Therefore,symbolically, Pope’s indulgence might represent nearly man’s humility gesture towards Nature God to whose laws man says he is still submitted.

And at last let’s face the real problem, what will happen (if and) when the present pandemia ends? Man will start again breaking Nature’s laws, maybe with renewed fury,full of anger and grudge for the forced stop [8].

Will man realize he won’t be able to go on doing what he has always done, otherwise extinction? Nature is already preparing some weapons, ready to intervene when man should be successful in defeating Coronavirus [9]. Let’s try to use two apparently improbable contributions: the first is Sharon Stone’s. The actress who has already shown a remarkable IQ, has said “… while Italy is going through Coronavirus quarantine, swans are seen in Venice canals and dolphins are swimming jously.Nature has simply pressed the reset key in the all of a sudden clear waters of Venice canals and off a closed Italy. Think if we all should be put aside what might become our planet beyond our wildest dreams?[10],[11]. But Sharon Stone doesn’t only tell about an apocalyptical prophecy but makes an absolutely achievable and very interesting  proposal: “… it should be enough if the whole planet worked from home for one week a month..”.

Instead if we speak of a vegetarian diet, we know that man started feeding on meat just at the moment of the passing from monkey to man to provide for the big need of proteins necessary for the working of a highly developed brain. The need of bigger and bigger quantities of meat contributed, for the 75%, to environmental pollution with the emission of intestinal gases coming from intensive  cattle-breedings.

Obviously supporting a vegan diet would mean to be in contrast with man’s evolutive history itself. It should be equally unreasonable, also for cultural and socio-psychological reasons,to eliminate, totally and drastically, workplaces. In this period the virus is teaching us, perhaps in a bit forced way, to use “ smart working”. Then, on our own initiative, we could feed according to the well-known pyramid, so we could improve our health and also help in reducing pollution.

The famous phrase “nothing will be like it was before”, that is used rhetorically and enphatically in a lot of circumstances, has always meant in reality “ nothing new under the sun “.

In these days the virus is teaching us that the same sentence will have to be chosen by human beings as a life model, that is to say a new way to intend the relation with Nature.

 

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[1] “Nature, being eager and taking pleasure in creating and making lives and forms over and over again, because it knows they are an increasing of its earthly matter,is willing and faster in creating than time in and using up and so it ordered many animals should become food to one another and this not satisfying such a desire, it often gives off a kind of poisonous and pestiferous vapour and a continous plague over the great reproducing and flocking together of anomals, and above all over men who increase so much because other animals don’t make them their food and once causes are taken away, effects will fail”.

[2] Among many of them, in Italy, Nicola Zingaretti, the president of Regione Lazio who, a few days before the definitive outbreak of the pandemia, supported the initiative of “#MILANDOESNTSTOP ” with physical contacts and appetizers.

The herd immunity of Boris Johnson, the British Premier, with his nearly immediate backing, is even more suggestive.

 

[3] In the first Christian communities serious sins such as homicide, adultery and apostasy allowed a return to the community only after severe and prolonged penalties, called Canonical Penalty totally changing the repentant sinner’s life. The latter assumed the status of repentant entering the ordo poenitentium.

The condition of repentant lasted many years, was extremely heavy and very particular: from that point on everything declared his condition to anyone should have only a look at him.

With a shabby look, a goat skin on and with a cilice, with a face marked by fasting he should be excluded from any public and ecclesiastic office, from marriage and even normal jobs. He should be a civil dead to the point where young people were often advised against the entry the ordo poenitentium and only old or dying people were allowed. So much harshness induced penitents to look for something that could mitigate the rigour […other]

[4] The famous penances such as “10 Hail Mary, 5 Our Father”.

[5]  […other]

[6] In a St. Peter square so spectrally desert as it had never happened, neither during the last World War, the Pope, practically alone and clearly exhausted, advanced painfully towards the 1500 century crucifix. Seeking, desperately, confort in his own faith Bergoglio dramatically showed all man’s fragility in front of Nature God’s terrifying power.

[7] “But Jesus, after stooping,started writing with a finger on the ground. And since they insisted on questioning him, he raised his head and said to them:”  let him that is without sin among you, cast the first stone against her”. And stooping again he went on writing on the ground. But after hearing this those went away one by one starting from the oldest till the last ones. Jesus remained alone with the woman over there. Then after standing up Jesus said to her:” Woman,where are they?Has no one condemned you?” And she answered : “No one, Lord”. And Jesus said to her: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8,1-11)

[8] “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot,full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. (Shakespeare. Macbeth. actV, Scene 5^).

[9] In the Chinese province of Yunnan a man died on a bus and subsequently proved to be positive to Hantavirus. In 1994 Hantavirus had been the protagonist of a movie scene in Arizona, in the area called “ Canyon del Muerto”. […other] 

[10] The presence of “ Homo” on the earth can be quantified in 200-300 thousand years. Nothing if it’s compared with the one of other living beings called “ living fossils”. The horseshoe crab is present on our planet from 445 milion years, not only before men but before dinosaurs and plants. It wasn’t necessary for such creatures to evolve in order to survive this “ infinite time”. They have even entered, easily, the ecosystem and have become the favourite food of various birds that, since they can even eat 9 thousand horseshoe crab eggs, this way, can feed to complete their migrations. Certainly if man should estinguish it’s very probable for horseshoe crabs to go on populating the earth.

[11] We have to think that in only two months Coronavirus  has been able to reduce pollution, being successful where many summits on climate couldn’t in 30 years.

Translated from “Il Virus Intelligente” by Enrica Narducci