A professor has now suggested that he would reconsider being an atheist if President Donald Trump would catch the virus and pass away from it.
The professor was identified as Richard Wigmans, J.F. Bucy Chair Professor at Texas Tech University by Campus Reform, who first broke the story – one which Wigmans refers to Trump as things such as “president #45.”
The article states that Wigmans emailed the physics department colleagues with his prediction on how the COVID-19 will affect things and even offered his opinion on how Trump is handling the situation.
At first, Campus Reform states, Wigmans email dives right in “by questioning why the media “do not present the data in logarithmic form, because that is how pandemics develop” – specifically mentioning South Korea and a “fixed percentual increase” compared to the numbers from Italy and the United States – which he suggests are “unabated.”
Wigmans also suggested that President Donald Trump is downplaying the situation and the death toll will rise to, and go over, 10,000 “by next weekend.”
Wigmans mentioned Trump’s hope to be fully functional by Easter. However, Trump also walked back on that, calling it “aspirational” during one of his recent press briefings.
Mckenna Dallmeyer wrote:
The email continues by pointing out that several weeks ago, the president said, “everything is under tremendous control” and “I give myself a grade 10/10 for the way this situation has been handled.” Wigmans then says the president is not stupid and gives his interpretation of “president #45’s” words with three bullet points, including suggesting that Trump doesn’t care about some Americans dying from the coronavirus because they are from blue states.
This is where it gets somewhat frightening in context.
Campus Reform quoted the college professor as saying, “I am personally an atheist, but if #45 would die as a result of this virus, I might reconsider.”
When Campus Reform reached out for comment regarding this statement, Wigmans said, “this is a statement about myself, not about someone else.” He confirmed, “I have distributed some emails to my colleagues in which I provide a scientist’s perspective on the available COVID-19 data, and use the observed trends to make some predictions.”
“I have received many comments from people who appreciate this,” Wignmans added.
Regarding whether he expressed a desire for Trump to die from the virus, Wignmans said, “I have not expressed such a wish.”
Campus Reform spoke with the professor. Wigmans says he is looking at the coronavirus in a similar way people might view the “deadly plague” from the Bible. He then suggests if Trump were to be “specifically targeted” by this, that he might “interpret that as a non-random event, God’s hand if you will” and that’s what might have him reconsider being an atheist.
Wigmans also stated that when history is written about this time period, he hopes to see the terms such as the “China virus” removed and replaced with “Trump pandemic” and “Trump recession.”
Wigmans also stated that his views, which some may see as controversial, are strictly about himself, not others.