**2. The epidemic of COVID-19 as an alarm for humanity**

The epidemic of COVID-19 that accompanies all of humanity between the years 2020–2022, could be a milestone in human history. On the one hand, this epidemic is very reminiscent of other diseases and epidemics that have accompanied humanity since its inception. On the other hand, contemporary transportation and technology make this epidemic different from any other epidemic in human history [1].

I would like to think about our period—"our" pandemic—as another step in the journey of humanity toward a new alliance between peoples and nations. The focus of this article is to suggest new thinking about the "self-consciousness" of humanity, through the various ways people have responded to natural challenges. We need to differentiate between different kinds of human responses to these challenges: religious reactions, scientific explanations, and ethical relations [2–4].

There are religious rites, theological narratives, and cultural acts, that people used to give meanings to the mysteries of nature and to natural disasters [5, 6]. There are scientific explanations—classic, medieval or modern—that revealed the reality behind the history [7]. I would like to present another response to these natural challenges: the imperative of responsibility [8].

The call for responsibility will be a new environmental attitude that sees human existence as part of nature. It requires that people understand themselves as belonging to the earth and to nature surrounds them [9].

### **3. The natural disasters and the question of theodicy**

In the years 2019–2022, humanity met one of the greatest challenges of human history. Of course, this is just another station—and not the worse one—in the history of maladies and pandemics of human beings. But there is something unique in the pandemic of COVID-19. This time, the plague encompasses all of humanity, and all the different countries and groups have to deal with it.

I would like to suggest a new perspective towards natural challenges—like maladies, pandemics, and plagues—be seen as a cultural mirror of humanity. Human reactions to these natural challenges can teach us about humanity with their cultural, practical, and political meanings [10, 11].

In more than one aspect, we can think about the natural challenges as the basis that moves people to create their cultures. It might be said that this is the underlying reason to establish religions—as theological responses to the mysteries of nature. A reasonable reading of Scripture might think about God as the saver of humanity, and thus define his divine authority.

A cynical look at the Scriptures can present them as a collection of stories about "divine violence," and as a way of establishing religious authority. Divine violence is justified, and the ability to resolve the difficulty in dealing with nature and disasters is just in God's hands. The meaning of the religious apparatus is to determine the way in which God participates in human history. In fact, the God of the Bible appears as the

one who can solve the problems of people and their behavior in nature, history, and in their human wars.

Ostensibly, God acts in history through miracles, to establish justice. A wide look at biblical history, however, shows that it is not ethics that results in salvation, but God as the ruler of nature. One of the best examples of that biblical message is God's response to Job "out of the storm," which can justify this argument, in a clear and unbending way.
