Similar to my beliefs about death, I think that sickness and disease exist to draw us closer to God.  Pretend for a moment that you're God:  you create the heavens and the earth and put some people on the earth.  In a very short time, they forget about you because they're distracted by what's happening on their planet.  So you make them realize that they won't be there forever by letting some plants and animals die.  But they don't understand; they just cook the dead animals and eat them.  So you make some people die, hoping that other people will realize that they too will die someday.  But all this does is cause fear and anger towards you, their creator.  You pull out some of your hair and take a deep breath.  So you figure, "I know:  I'll make them sick so that they're close to death, but they don't actually die.  Then they'll realize that they may die at some point, but it won't make anybody scared or mad."  But then some dude comes along and figures out how to heal the sickness you gave to your creation.  So you have to think of something else that they can't fix.  But each time you give them a sickness, they figure out how to cure it; they're very resourceful little things.  So amidst all this stuff, your sole purpose was to help your creatures remember you.  Now stop pretending you're God because that's not good. #religion