Questions - Death and Illness

On this page we ask questions of how death and illness may be reconciled with the actions of a loving God – questions like

• If God created the world perfect, then why is there disease and illness within it?
• Isn’t God bothered by human death and illness?

Through this page you will find an extract from 'The God of the Cruel World', some book recommendations and links to websites where people are attempting to provide answers to this type of question.

Extract from 'God of The Cruel World'

...the immune system of a human is generally robust in dealing with infections, it is clear that there are periods in the human lifecycle when the body is less able to manage these events. Two such times occur: infancy when the body is learning to fight infection, and old age when the body is not so strong. Another time when the human defence might fail is when a new virus is encountered which the immune system has no experience of and is insufficiently equipped to deal with.

A classic example of this occurred in New Zealand in the late 18th century with the arrival of colonists from Great Britain, who unwittingly introduced the indigenous Maori population to a range of infectious illnesses. These viruses, such as chicken pox, measles and the common cold, had never been encountered by the Maoris and many were unable to fight these new infections. A sizeable proportion of the indigenous population died within a decade.

Nowadays, humans have developed antibiotics to assist the immune system in helping people fight infection. However, although penicillin and other antibiotics have saved many lives, present day medicine advises against the repeated use of these drugs for fear they will inadvertently weaken the immune system. The problem is that the virus, also a living thing, desires to survive and so adapts to these new antibiotics creating even more complex infections – infections that may later go beyond the capacity of the human immune system. Of course, a different problem that arises from this is the failure of humanity to keep pace with these viruses, which continually require new antibiotics to be developed and manufactured.

Research into the causes of illness over the years has not only helped people to identify and understand diseases better but has also resulted in a large number of cures being developed. A good example of this relates to leprosy, an infection which, when left untreated, affects the person’s nerves, causing damage to skin, limbs and eyes. Although the Bible and other documents record that people had leprosy in times that predate Jesus Christ, it was not until the end of the last century that the bacteria that caused this condition was discovered. Previous to this, many people considered leprosy incurable and managed it by keeping the infected individual separate from everyone else. However, the discovery by the Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen that the disease was caused by a particular bacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) was later advanced by others who developed multidrug treatments to cure individuals with leprosy.

Extract from 'The God of the Cruel World' (Death & Illness) © 2007 Bob Eckhard

Further Reading

Links

'The Pain that Heals' by Rev Dr Martin Israel, lecturer in pathology considers the creative potential of suffering that may occur for people as they come to terms and endure illness. An interesting book that may be found electronically online.

Books

'Dying to Live' by pastor Jim Graham provides an outline of Christian teaching on life after death – an overtly conservative approach that also considers issues of death and judgement which some might find difficult but well worth a read.