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Do you think the Corono-virus will hurt or help religion?

Grecio 7 Mar 16
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53 comments

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10

Covid-19 will neither help nor hinder religion, this for the simple reason that religious nutters are immune to facts.

8

This whole thing has managed to highlight many of the vulnerabilities and cracks in our current system of day to day existence and I think there will be some structural casualties. I don't see why religion would not be one of those casualties. Well, maybe I should say that I hope that religion will be one of those casualties. 🙂

7

Some think this is the devil's work. Others look at it as God's way of thinning out the herd. They'll justify this any way they can. Stay healthy and safe everyone!

6

religion will spin it to their benefit now matter what happens with it.

6

No. Anyone credulous enough to believe will bend into whatever pretzel shape is necessary to continue believing. OTOH if most of them die from the virus it might harm the congregations.

6

Right now many churches are closed, and that will give many folks alternative ideas of what to do on Sunday morning. I can see it both helping and hurting.

5

Not at all. But religious people will use this for their religion, thats for sure.

5

I think it will hurt it, but only very slightly. Not because it will cause any to lose faith, but because it mostly kills older people who are more likely to be religious. Young people won't buy into the "punishment of god" line so much.

Well said. Kill off the old. Also, it might help racism, at least in the USA because old people seem to be the most racial, perhaps because the lived through the period when racial discrimination was really strong.

5

Some people will double down on religion. The smarter people will distance themselves from it.

It's interesting to me, I don't think intelligence has anything to do with believing. Only about half of the best scientists are agnostic-atheist. The remainder are Christians and Jews, etc. Dr. Francis Collins, the scientist that headed up the Human Genome Project at MIT, wrote a book about why he is a Christian. I can't see why he wouldn't believe in evolution, but who knows? Maybe there is a gene that causes one to be a believer?

@Grecio I used to wonder why there were smart and stupid religious people, and smart and stupid non-religious people. I came to the conclusion that people compartmentalize their brains. They can think scientifically on the job, but on Sunday morning they switch to unscientific, blind faith.

@BestWithoutGods Well put, my friend.

5

Short term help long term not so much. Some of the more rational thoughtful churches have cancelled services, the evangelical church has claimed they are immune. This will self correct as the idiots die off but probably not enough of them

bobwjr Level 10 Mar 16, 2020
4

They'll take credit for the cure. It's inevitable, but people should have discussions and evaluate their faith when their religious grandmother dies after praying daily to not get this disease.

@AkEyHeAdAkE I believe you meant, To God BE the glory?

4

They will find a way to profit off it. They have way too much power already.

And the Government as well especially with 45 behind the screen. Big Bucks for the Pharma's and the Stock Market let alone the Insurance Companies who will be raising the premiums and lowering the coverage which is what they specialize in. Grocery Chains are honing in with a dozen eggs going for $5.

4

Oh no. The various churches will just proclaim it "God's" punishment for Man's sinfulness. Just like they did with the Bubonic Plague, the AIDS epidemic, and the invasion of Europe by Attila the Hun.

Exactly!

Well said, my friend.

4
4

I think that it will make little difference to the ‘religious!’ ‘God sends test,’ that is how they will see it!

4

I fear, in America anyway, it will result in a loss of popular faith in science, if only because the administration so denigrates science and scientists, undercutting and contradicting the message of the medical community at every turn, downplaying the crisis for the most shallow of reasons- because it could hurt the economy and Trump's re-election chances. If Trump wanted to show he deserved another term, he could address the facts honestly, and, for example, accept his administration's share of blame for dismantling the pandemic management apparatus in the NSC. But no such luck- it's been everyone else's fault, as usual.

To that extent, religion in America may see a boost, if only because we don't have a government to turn to at this time.

4

At this point, I don't really care. Whatever gets people thru it. I look forward to the day that we go back to normal activities happening and all businesses open, with the likely permanent change of no salad bars at restuarants. Maybe also no more buffets, who knows. I remember back in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS plague that it seemed like things would never get back to normal. Well, eventually it did, for the most part, after successful treatments were found and the spread of the virus was pretty much stopped.

3

On the whole, I doubt there will be an impact, either way. Sadly, however, some of loved ones of those killed by the virus will inevitably ask, 'why?' Experiencing first hand the 'problem of evil' is often an impetus to question, or even doubt. It most certainly was for me. Why, after all, would a kind and loving god allow a virus to destroy one of his children, leaving loved ones without a parent or grandparent? And if they become unsatisfied with the platitudes from the pulpit, they may arrive the same logical conclusion as Epicurus, even if they've never heard of him.

3

Isn't the question supposed to be: Will religion hurt or help the Corona-virus. The answer is NO!

Why do you write that?

@Grecio Because viruses don't give a fuck about religion. Just like the honey badger,

3

Thinning the garden....
Lol

3

It all depends upon whether or not religion can develop an app to capture disillusioned young people. The older population that is the base for most religions will be hard hit by this plague but the young should get through it largely unscathed physically but crippled financially - in desperate times, people take desperate measure and will believe in almost anything that gives them solace.

I guess, when people suffer from conditions from which they have no control, like the Coronavirus, the only thing to do do is ask for God's help. We are like rats in a maze as far as living is concerned. It's true but in a way is sad, because we cannot live forever.

@Grecio I guess we could take preventative steps to slow the spread of this virus and take further steps to treat those who become seriously infected. That sounds like a much better plan than praying to some imaginary holy moly and acting like helpless children. I don't want to live forever but today was a pretty good day for the most part and I would like to wake up tomorrow and be pleasantly surprised by whatever comes my way.

@Surfpirate I guess, for most but not all living is fun to at least some degree. Maybe, any life is better than no life at all. I dunno. There is so much suffering in many peoples lives. I'll bet there are numerous that suffer so much that they don't see the point. I guess that it hurts really badly to fall so low that one wishes to die. Imagine the parents of children in Syria that get bombed most days and have no shelter. When factions can't get together enough to stop killing of innocent children, that is a really bad mark on the human race.

3

With charlatans like Jim Baker and Kenneth Copeland selling fake cures and 'healing' people over the TV, I think it's just pointing up the foolishness of religion, the fakery, the self-deceit necessary to keep believing in the face of facts.

@JohnnyQB Non-sequitur. Meaningless response with no actual content.

@JohnnyQB No.

3

Some people will question their beliefs and why they or their loved ones weren't protected. For others it will strengthen their beliefs thanking their god for protecting them or allowing them to survive and get better.

3

I'll just second what Marionville said.

And I'll go with Fernapple 😉

3

Neither...I don’t think that there’s any evidence of past pandemics or natural disasters having had any influence in belief in god, either waning or being reaffirmed.

There is perhaps no solid evidence, because it is a subjective issue, but there is a strong concensus of opinion that the Black Death helped to undermine the medieval church, and kick started the renaissance. If only because deaths were higher among priests and monks who attended the sick, and that lowered the quality and number of clergy serving in the next generation. While the economic boom which followed, generated a much better educated secular class, with more economic power.

@Fernapple The Black Death was almost 700 years ago....do we have any data a bit more recent to hold up as an example?

@Marionville No and I don't think that they have much. But your comment did not include a time limit.
It is however plain that the discovery of the biological origin of infectious disease , by people like Pasteur, did kick away one of religions best props during the nineteenth century.

@Fernapple But that is the result of science, not disaster.

@Fernapple, @Marionville I suggest the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed more people than were killed, on both sides, during this high fatality war. (50 million!)
How did that affect religion, one way or the other? I reckon @Marionville is probably right.

@Petter. Exactly my point...there is no evidence that any catastrophic event affects a belief in god to any significant degree.

@Marionville Not necessarily. The 1755 earthquake in Portugal, where worshipers in Churches died, destroyed hindreds of people's blind faith in god.

[en.m.wikipedia.org]

@Petter Not in significant enough numbers to affect the majority belief in Catholicism though, so I’d call that negligible effect.

@Marionville But it profoundly shook people's belief and led to investigation of natural phenomena, thus undermining religion's foundations. The results of the Lusbon quake manifested themselves decades later. Hence, perhaps our answer should be "Yes, but not immediately."

@Petter My point is still... not significantly. So I’d say “Yes, but not immediately or significantly. The majority of Portuguese people still believe in god, and are still practising Roman Catholics almost 3 centuries later!

@Petter How can you have a science of disease, without disease ?

@Petter, @Marionville People rarely change overnight, but each new blow knocks away a little confidence. Slowly tap, tap, tap over time.

@Fernapple Very slow...snails’ pace!

@Marionville Yes but look how far we have come, at that pace. Two centuries ago an atheist/agnostic would have been put in prison to reform. Six centuries ago you would be burned. Ten you would be thought mad.

@Fernapple Like I say...snail’s pace.

@Marionville But only 19% of Portuguese attend church every Sunday, a tremendous drop in attendance. It is nowadays far from being the most most religious nation in Europe, although Spain is even less so, with a huge atheist population.

@Petter Yes,, that’s good...and maybe in a generation or two the majority will actually no longer say that they are Catholic..but we’re not there yet are we? It has been a long slow marathon...not the 100 metres sprint!

@Marionville I love it here when I post a comment on FB, poking fun at religion. As soon as any christians object they are "shouted down" by hordes of atheists.

@Marionville You never know we may get a sprint finish.

@Fernapple You never can tell!

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