(Minghui.org) The pandemic has been going on for over a year now, with more than 100 million people infected and over 2.5 million dead. To combat the virus, governments have implemented lockdowns and mask mandates, and scientists are racing to develop vaccines. From another perspective, however, the pandemic also showed how ineffective human beings are in the face of natural disasters.

With the development of modern technology, people's living standards have improved. People have also become more and more arrogant. Many do not believe in the divine or the long-held belief that good is rewarded while evil is punished. Morality is declining drastically day by day.

But gods exist whether people believe it or not. Human self-indulgence has brought on the wrath of gods. Frequent hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and plagues have shown over and over again that human beings are insignificant in this world.

People have also developed many notions, such as absolute faith in science. Especially with the rapid advancement of computer science, genome manipulation, and aerospace technologies, people's lives have become deeply dependent on modern science. However, science has its own limitations because modern science is based on empirical observation. It does not deal with subjects that are invisible and intangible, such as faith, gods, Buddhas, good and evil, etc.

Ancient Chinese, on the contrary, were more open-minded and wise. They studied the universe, life, and human body directly. Their thinking was much broader. For example, they believed in the unity of heaven and man. They could foretell changes in human society from natural phenomena. They knew the concept of mutual generation and mutual inhibition, and believed in the consequences of good and evil.

People today are indoctrinated with science, and they reject things beyond science without thinking. They have become narrow-minded. Ancient people knew about meridians and acupressure points through self-cultivation, but modern people only started to believe in them after their existence was verified through modern technology within the last hundred years.

Ancient Chinese believed that the principles of the universe are the foundation of everything, while techniques are only tools. Modern people emphasize the techniques and ignore the fundamentals. For example, when treating a plague, people focus on isolation and developing vaccines and medicine. Ancient people focused on improving people's moral standards and righteous energy. As the famous Chinese classic Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine) points out, “With righteousness inside, evil substances are unable to interfere.”

According to historical records, plagues often took place at the end of dynasties in China, such as the Eastern Han, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. At the end of each dynasty, the emperor usually had no virtue, officials were corrupt, and good people were persecuted.

Plagues also took place when righteous faiths were persecuted. For example, during the first few hundred years when Christians were persecuted for their faith in the Roman Empire, people in Rome experienced four major plagues.

Plagues often struck when people became morally corrupt. When the “black death” swept across Europe during the 1300s, many clergymen were corrupted and used religion as an excuse to accumulate wealth. In 1665, a bubonic plague broke out in London, claiming the lives of 100,000 people. At the time, the city of London was at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Some people believed the Great Plague was a divine punishment for a sinful city.

Plagues often start and end without warning. The arrival of a plague usually signals the ending of a corrupt dynasty and/or the beginning of a rebound of human morality.

Plagues also seem to be selective of their victims. For example, there was a plague in the last year of the Ming Dynasty. But the plague seemed only to affect the Ming army. Their opponents were were not affected. Similarly, it was reported that Christians appeared unaffected during the plagues of ancient Rome.

If plagues were arranged by Heaven, lockdowns and mask mandates are only superficial techniques. The fundamental solution is for people to restore morality and righteous belief in the divine.