A Different Type of Virus

A couple months back, a friend lent me a sizable book titled The Coming Plague that chronicles the journeys of epidemiologists who confronted diseases that were new as of the 20th century. So far, I've read about the discoveries of Lassa, Machupo, and Ebola. Now, I'm exploring various strains of influenza (P.S. Swine flu was/is actually pretty terrifying and now I understand why people were freaking out about it). While reading about this specific virus, a thought struck me: heresy actually parallels influenza viruses pretty dang well. Before I get into it, I'm going to quote a couple of paragraphs I read that brought about this realization.

When the [influenza] virus reproduced itself, the chromosomes had to unwind and make duplicate sets of their proteins and RNA. In the process, parts of one chromosome might overlap with another, extraneous bits of RNA from the cell in which the virus resided might get copied as well, and the whole mess would be reassorted and reassembled to yield an intact parent virus and its packaged, somewhat different, offspring.

At the heart of such complexity lay many opportunities for genetic change, some of which might be lethal for the viruses, others of which might prove fatal for the targeted human hosts. (p. 155)

Alright, I'm going to pause there. This chunk essentially says that these viruses 1) have one parent and similar-looking offspring, drawing from itself and its environment; 2) some of the genetic changes lead to the downfall of the offspring; and 3) they can be fatal to the humans in which they take up residence. The parallels here alone are impressive. Heresies 1) have their own "parent" or root statement and reemerge throughout history in slightly different ways according to the cultural-context of the time, 2) some can lead to their own undoing by turning their own reasoning upon themselves, and 3) can be spiritually fatal to the humans who encounter them (cause them to "die the death" in that the Spirit no longer lives in them). Ok, time to keep going (yes, there's more!).

If [the] constant process of genetic shuffling didn't frequently yield new types of [proteins], all target humans could eventually be immune to influenza and the virus species might die out.... The virus seemed to successfully change itself often enough so that at least once in every human generation a significantly new strain appeared that could elude the human immune system. Usually, after a great pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands - or millions - of people, survivors would have made antibodies that recognized and quickly neutralized the [proteins] of that strain. (pp. 155-156).

Another time to pause. I want to point out another couple things: 1) due to, genetic shuffling the human race doesn't become completely immune to the influenza virus; 2) every generation sees a new enough strain that it has wide-reaching impacts on the human race; and 3) after the pandemic gets "bad enough," survivors' immune systems are able to swiftly combat the virus strain. Can you guess the parallels I'm going to draw? 1) Because new "daughters" of specific heresies keep popping up, the humans as a whole don't become completely immune to them. Here's an entire podcast episode devoted to this topic if you're interested. 2) With each new generation, cultures change enough to make different heresies seem more believable given the new context. Sometimes, the new "daughter heresies" look different enough from their parents and siblings that previous arguments against them are not sufficient to combat them. 3) It takes time for new heresies to be noticed and really seem like an issue. Thus, it also might take time for those who are exposed to and resist them to formulate the strong arguments against them. But, once armed with those arguments, it becomes easier to fend off the new heresies by pulling them out when needed.

Ok, last bit: "Most healthy people could successfully overcome [newly emerging virus strains] swiftly, making suitably adapted antibodies that would obliterate the viruses after a relatively mild bout of flu. Only people whose immune systems were weak...would die of influenza during such [epidemics]" (p. 156). Essentially, this is pointing out that some people are more vulnerable to succumb to influenza than others. These can be people who are currently battling serious illness, young children, and the malnourished. Yes, I know more groups make the list, but for the sake of my argument I'm going to set them aside. Some people are more susceptible to succumbing heresies, too. Following those groups I listed, they can be people battling other hard battles in the spiritual life, young children, and those who are spiritually malnourished (lacking prayer life, don't regularly receive the sacraments, poorly catechized, etc). 

What to do with all of this?  Well, to keep going with the theme: vaccinate against heresies! Check out different books, blogs, podcasts, etc. that focus on apologetics topics. Get to know Church history (those who are unaware of the past are doomed to repeat it). Get to know the Bible and how it has traditionally been interpreted (people assuming they've got the interpretation right all by themselves is what led to countless heresies). And, of course, spread the knowledge you gain to equip others against these heresies, too!

So, go get vaccinated! And don't forget to get your booster shots down the road, too!