Covid-19 and The Tree of the Garden in Modern Human Civilisation by Dr Park Seong-Won, President of Gyeongan Graduate University
Twenty years ago, when the world shifted from the
1900s to the 2000s, we were excited that human history was entering the 21st century, the new millennium. At that time, there was optimism that “the infinite development of technology would make enormous improvement in human life” during the 21st century, and scepticism that “although technology might develop, without caution in consumerism and ecological destruction, we might be in danger of more diseases and ecological threats.” But what has happened? Unfortunately, as soon as we entered the 2000s, the world fell into a war spiral – with the Gulf War, 9/11 terrorist attacks, Afghanistan war, Iraq war etc. – and the economy was polarised by neo-liberal economic globalisation and continued ecological destruction, resulting in serious ecological crises such as climate change and fine dust. In addition, it was foreseen that new life-threatening diseases which we have never experienced before might arise, and that is now becoming a reality. Dilemma of the Modern Human Civilisation Twenty years ago, I was working at the World Communion of Reformed Churches, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and whenever I had an opportunity to preach at either a European or Korean congregation, I preached a sermon entitled "The Fruit of the Tree of Garden of the 21st Century" based on Genesis 3.
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At that time, in this particular sermon, I mentioned the disease “Ebola” and warned that if we would not change the path of current human civilisation, we would face far more serious diseases than with Ebola. Ebola is a terrifying disease with a fatality rate of 50 to 90 percent that first appeared in the central African Congo in 1976. It swept Africa in 1998, just around the corner of 2000, putting the world in a state of panic. Ebola did not come under the spotlight this year as the world was engulfed with COVID-19, but it actually reappeared in Congo on August 1, 2018, setting a record of 3,470 confirmed cases, 2,287 dead, 1,171 survivors. A record of 1/3 of confirmed cases ended in death and was declared terminated in June 25, 2020. Twenty years ago, a warning was issued about future diseases; unfortunately, this was followed by a series of new, scary diseases. SARS in 2002, MERS in 2013, the Zika virus in 2015, Ebola again in 2014, and COVID-19 in late 2019, just a few days before 2020, resulting in an indefinite stop to all systems around the world. Is this image of us wearing masks during our daily lives the new normal? Is social distancing, for humans who are social animals, the new normal? This situation is clearly abnormal – an absolutely abnormal reality. Many people say "this too will pass!" and hope that the situation will soon end and we will be able to go back to living like we used to. But it won’t. Some say human history should now be divided into BC and AC – before corona and after corona – by comparing COVID-19 to BC and AD. This unparalleled reality is unlikely to change easily, with the world's nations sealed off by a virus which was never seen before. Even the world wars could not shut down all systems for so long and close national borders. Are we going to live like this? Or do we wish to change something?
INSiGHT | December 2020
