At least according to the History Channel. According to ancient astronaut theory, they seeded us here long ago. But they do still keep tabs on us from time to time. Anyway with breeding stock (and let's face it, that is exactly what we are to them), the time does sometimes come to cull the herd. Hence the mysterious plagues we get from time to time in human history. Actually plagues aren't always bad. The Black Death for one might have led indirectly to the American Revolution and many subsequent Democratic reforms in other countries. Why would the History Channel lie to us?
They want to cull the herd so they unleash a virus that primarily kills the elderly? Does not compute .
but i have been paying attention, and what i have observed is this is so extreme an oversimplification as to be near totally devoid of useful function. not least because evil isn't a side, but a form of behavior, best summed up as aggressive inconsiderateness (which is also illogical, (to be aggressively inconsiderate) but if you're born with "it all", it might never occur to you to look that close or question that much what nourishes the roots of your own fortune.) that being said, there are more exceptions then "one size fits all" explanations.)
the plague isn't a retribution as such, but it is a natural and inevitable result of a culture of aggressive inconsiderateness and of erroneously equating it with freedom. the hatred of logic is not a biological imperative, ideology or belief, it is a choice. the world we live in, the human aspects of that word, is the statistical sum of these kinds of choices. wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance. if everyone did that we'd all be good. if no one did we'd all be screwed. waiting for some medical magic to make it all better, that somebody can make money off of, that's just the crazyness that's why we have the problem in the first place. and there's only going to keep being more and worse of them until we take our heads out of our hatred of logic and wake up to this. you think this one plague is the end of the world now, wait until the rise of the oceans starts depleting the food supply, and breeding even more new and diverse illnesses. a process all rooted in our worship of the use of combustion for propulsion and energy, multiplied by our excessive birthrate. its the environment and this is a shot across our bow about it. its the environment, and that's all because we tell each other to hate logic.
the universe doesn't judge. it just works the way it does. but there is a price for pretending otherwise, even if some belief tells you to.