This thread is really about an issue that arises in the philosophy of religion, namely, the problem of evil. I'm making this post as an attempt to provide a bit of context and to distract myself from anxiety about the coronavirus.
So here goes. The bits in bold are not intended to patronise but simply to emphasise key points.
The classic or logical problem of evil as outlined by Epicurus (who was a Greek philosopher not a Christian) is as follows:
If God is all-powerful (omnipotent) He could therefore put a stop to evil.
If God is all-loving (omnibenevolent) He would therefore want to put a stop to evil.
But evil exists.
Therefore God is not all-powerful or not all-loving (or both).
Some philosophers argue that because God is omniscient (all-knowing) this is also incompatible with the existence of evil in the world because God must have known in advance what was going to happen. One example is Bertrand Russell, who wrote that ‘If I were going to beget a child knowing that the child was going to be a homicidal maniac, I should be responsible for his crimes. If God knew in advance the sins of which man would be guilty, He was clearly responsible for all the consequences of those sins when He decided to create man’.
A second problem, known as the evidential problem of evil says, not that the existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of an all-powerful, all-loving God but that the existence of evil provides good evidence against the existence of a God that has these qualities.
According to the evidential problem of evil, the amount and type of evil now becomes relevant. Even if we acknowledge that an all-powerful, all-knowing God might have created a world with at least some suffering in it (perhaps for the sake of some greater good), surely he would not have created a world with this much suffering?
We can sharpen the evidential problem of evil by noting that God will presumably not allow any unnecessary or pointless suffering to exist. There must be a good reason for every last bit of it.
Philosophers generally distinguish two types of evil that must be explained: moral evil – the harm humans knowingly do to others; non-moral evil (suffering, natural evil) from earthquakes, floods, disease e.g. coronavirus. A good explanation (known as a theodicy) for why God allows evil must account for both of these forms of evil.
Now I will cut to the chase and add my own views.
When we start to consider the enormous amount of suffering in the world – including the millions of years of animal suffering caused by natural events that occurred before humans even made an appearance – doesn’t it become overwhelmingly unlikely that every last bit of suffering can be accounted for in this way?
Additionally, the Russian novelist Dostoevsky argued that whatever God’s plan is that it cannot justify the suffering of innocent children. For example, some babies are born with a genetic skin disease that causes blistering all over the body, so that the baby cannot be held, or even lie on its back without pain. It seems odd to think that some kind of greater good or higher purpose can be achieved through permitting this kind of natural evil to exist.
Plus, we already have lots of other diseases that strike randomly and inflict evil and suffering on us.
For these reasons, the existence of pointless evil seems to me to suggest that the God of classical theism in all likelihood does not exist.
However, that's not all that I have to say, as there are other, very different ways in which Ultimate Reality has been construed down the centuries. Exposure to the mystical writings of various faiths and cultures which centre on contemplative experience have persuaded me to remain agnostic on this issue.