WRIGHT WAY Fearing a zombie
outbreak?
Posted Wednesday, February 3, 2016 8:00 am
Television, movies and graphic novels flood the market with possibilities of a “zombie outbreak,” causing otherwise rational people to prepare for a vicious, fictitious battle against the “living dead.”
Today there are actual zombie survival classes and even a zombie news app that notifies users of an impending zombie invasion! Based on what?
According to a new National Geographic Channel documentary, “The Truth Behind Zombies,” although dead humans cannot come back to life, certain viruses can induce aggressive, zombie-like behavior.
Using the example of rabies — “a viral disease that infects the central nervous system — can drive people to be violently mad,” according to Samita Andreansky, a virologist at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine in Florida who also appears in the documentary.
The documentary theorizes that if you combine rabies with the ability of a flu virus to spread quickly through the air, “you might have the makings of a zombie apocalypse,” but “Unlike movie zombies, which become reanimated almost immediately after infection, the first signs a human has rabies — such as anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, and paralysis — don’t typically appear for 10 days to a year, as the virus incubates inside the body. Once rabies sets in, though, it’s fatal within a week if left untreated.”
Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to take advantage of the zombie craze. The graphic novel, “Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic,” was created by the CDC “to demonstrate the importance of being prepared, but in an entertaining way that people of all ages would enjoy.” Included in the comic is a Preparedness Checklist so that readers can put together an emergency kit to get their family, workplace or school ready before a disaster strikes.
Around the time of its release, however, there were several real-life incidents involving cannibalism and wild rumors spreading of a real-life zombie apocalypse on the horizon. In the summer of 2012, the CDC had to release an official statement saying there is no cause for alarm, and denied the existence of a “zombie virus.”
“CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms),” agency spokesman David Daigle told the Huffington Post in an email.
Of course, some skeptics are now afraid that a possible chemical contamination or a disease linked to food supplies could eventually cause people to exhibit symptoms similar to mad cow disease or rabies, causing those infected to display zombie-like characteristics.
While this possibility has some cynics preparing for a hypothetical “zombie apocalypse,” the Word of God offers a totally different outlook for the dead. How so? While it may seem like fun for some people to believe in zombies and watch shows about reanimated corpses feeding on human flesh, this concept finds no basis in reality or in human history. The truth is, many Christians view the idea of zombies as an afront to Christianity. Why?
According to John 11:25, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” When people were brought back to life by Jesus, they were normal, God-fearing people — not mindless, vicious, flesh-eating zombies. Creating this fear of the dead returning to life does not reflect the Bible’s resurrection hope.
It supports God’s archenemy, the Devil, who would like to discourage people from believing in the real resurrection of the dead.
The Bible’s promise at Acts 24:15 is that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous. This is good news! Countless loved ones will return to life, but not as flesh-eating zombies. Eating human flesh or drinking blood was as shocking in the past as it is in the present, according to John 6:56-66. The fact that many horror films have zombies engaging in this shocking behavior goes against the narrative of God’s Word. The dead can do no harm, according to Ecclesiastes 9:10.
Something evil is behind raising these blood-sucking, flesh-eating characters to cult hero status, when God’s Word condemns this behavior as deserving of death in Leviticus 17:10 or a cursed act of human desperation in Deuteronomy 28:53. Ask yourself, do I find entertaining what God hates? What purpose is watching such shows ultimately serving? Am I being manipulated while being entertained?
Perhaps some experts feel if they could convince the public to prepare for a “zombie apocalypse,” they’d be better prepared for real life disasters such as earthquakes or a pandemic. Maybe. On the other hand, some believe a better idea would be to start preparing for a prophetic apocalypse that promises to end all violence, sickness, death and even return the dead to life (Revelation 20:12-14). When that time arrives, the joy of seeing dead loved ones alive will surpass any false notion of a zombie outbreak!
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