Illness and disease

Some illness and disease is the result of people’s lifestyle.  For example, people who smoke tobacco can develop heart and lung disease.  If they smoke in the presence of other people, these smokers can harm others by forcing them to breathe second-hand smoke (passive smoking).  Women who smoke in pregnancy harm their unborn baby.

Many people in the world are at risk of diseases which could be prevented.  For example, half the world’s population is at risk of malaria; in 2008 around 243 million people contracted malaria and 863,000 people died as a result. (16) Yet malaria can be controlled if mosquito nets and the correct medicine are available.

There are many other examples of how illness and disease can be prevented or controlled by human beings.  However, sometimes illness occurs and no cause is apparent.  If the person is regarded as “good” others may ask “How can God let this happen to such a good person?”  The question suggests that God should divide people into bad and good groups and treat the good people better than the bad, or maybe even punish the bad by sending illness to them.  This is not so.  All of us are a mixture of good and bad and we all need God’s forgiveness.  And we should never forget that God loves all his creation and that includes people who are hostile or indifferent to him.