The Moral Virologist
The Moral Virologist “ADULTERERS! SODOMITES! REPENT AND BE SAVED! ABANDON YOUR WICKEDNESS NOW OR DIE AND BURN FOREVER!”
A statement Matthew Shawcross, uttered in his mind over and over again. I found Shawcross to be an interesting character. I also found this book to be quite intriguing. I’ve read several books about religion and even more books and articles about the spread and epidemic of fatal dieses. But I’ve never seen them combined in a single reading. Greg Egan pieced this story together carefully. This story was particularly different from any other story written in that time.
For a man to go out of his way to cause harm to a body of people because “It’s God’s Will,” seems completely insane and absurd! But that is the way it went down in this story. Shawcross who was nothing but a character made by Egan, question his self the entire story. He decided to affect people with a dieses, it was only short after that he wondered if it was really what God wanted him to do. I personally think it was his own selfish thoughts that caused him to harm people; I want to believe that he only used his religion as an excuse to do as he pleased.
By the end of this selection I was a little disturbed and confused by what I had read. Shawcross didn’t make his thoughts clear and neither were his actions. He had traveled the world to spread a virus, but when he finished he didn’t seem satisfied. He seemed just as confused as I was. He didn’t know in the end if what he had done was indeed for God or against him. He questioned his self and wondered what he had done to millions of innocent children who had done nothing to deserve it. But one thought that rested peacefully in the back of his mind was that people were sinners. And those sinners had to be punished.
"A few people will die. A few sinners, it can't be helped. But think of what the world will be like when the message finally gets through! No unfaithfulness, no rape; every marriage lasting until death -"
The thoughts
A statement Matthew Shawcross, uttered in his mind over and over again. I found Shawcross to be an interesting character. I also found this book to be quite intriguing. I’ve read several books about religion and even more books and articles about the spread and epidemic of fatal dieses. But I’ve never seen them combined in a single reading. Greg Egan pieced this story together carefully. This story was particularly different from any other story written in that time.
For a man to go out of his way to cause harm to a body of people because “It’s God’s Will,” seems completely insane and absurd! But that is the way it went down in this story. Shawcross who was nothing but a character made by Egan, question his self the entire story. He decided to affect people with a dieses, it was only short after that he wondered if it was really what God wanted him to do. I personally think it was his own selfish thoughts that caused him to harm people; I want to believe that he only used his religion as an excuse to do as he pleased.
By the end of this selection I was a little disturbed and confused by what I had read. Shawcross didn’t make his thoughts clear and neither were his actions. He had traveled the world to spread a virus, but when he finished he didn’t seem satisfied. He seemed just as confused as I was. He didn’t know in the end if what he had done was indeed for God or against him. He questioned his self and wondered what he had done to millions of innocent children who had done nothing to deserve it. But one thought that rested peacefully in the back of his mind was that people were sinners. And those sinners had to be punished.
"A few people will die. A few sinners, it can't be helped. But think of what the world will be like when the message finally gets through! No unfaithfulness, no rape; every marriage lasting until death -"
The thoughts