Why does God use collective punishment, such as creating parasites and viruses to punish people and animals for the sins of Adam and Eve?

 I don’t subscribe to the doctrine of original sin as portrayed in the Bible.

My understanding, based on Vedic testimony, is that every living entity exists eternally and those in the material world chose to come here.

Once we come here we are in the hands of material nature and must face the consequences of our actions. Sometimes the consequences are pleasant and sometimes not so much. Since the living entity is eternal, he exists in different bodies and experiences reactions to his activities life after life until he is freed from the cycle of birth and death and achieves liberation.

Collective punishment from viruses sounds dramatic but heart disease and stroke remain the top killers every single year, with a combined toll of ~15 million deaths annually. This world is a world of death. Everywhere, all the time, living organisms are dying in huge numbers.

The real punishment is continually being born and dying. It may be in any number of different ways and at different stages of life - that depends on an individual’s activities - but it’s inevitable. Every body that takes birth eventually dies.

In Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna points this out and offers a solution. He makes it clear that any situation in this world is plagued with the problem of birth and death, but if we surrender to Krishna’s instructions we can return to His abode and be freed from the unpleasant and unwanted repetition of birth and death.

From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again. Bg 8.16

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