How are religions explaining the pandemic?

[Pantheon]

Just curious as someone who isn't religious. Are religions giving explanations about why this is happening?

So God is killing millions of under fives to teach us rich rich Westerners that we should be sharing better, is that right? Well that’s going well isn’t it?

Re work ethic. I’m not religious but my mum is. Her current parish priest is young and enthusiastic, and to me is more like a powerhouse of a community social worker.

He runs drop in breakfast clubs, food banks, clothing banks and more, and basically the man never stops. I suspect he was a hyperactive child, and sought out a job that allowed him to constantly evolve.

@KeflavikAirport

So God is killing millions of under fives to teach us rich rich Westerners that we should be sharing better, is that right? Well that’s going well isn’t it?

You miss the point about self determination. God isn’t killing anyone; humanity is killing its own. There is enough food in this world for all. There is enough to give everyone access to clean water.

Humans have chosen not to but rather to allow a few to make their fortune at cost to the world. It might not be your personal choice but it is the world’s choice. Interesting that the countries that have fewest deaths and lowest economic impact are those with more socialist governments where welfare has been put ahead of consumerism.

Dine out subsidies are a good example of humans making crass decisions based on money to benefit very few but spread the virus.
Continuing to allow international travellers to return to an island we could have locked down and protected is another.
Delaying quarantine is another.
All human decisions not Gods decisions.

We allow pharmaceutical companies to profiteer, so poor nations don’t eat cheap malarial treatments. The love of money is the reason there is no viable malaria treatment at the moment; it is because there is ‘no market’. GSK have one in stage 2 trials but won’t/can’t roll it out. It’s not terribly efficacious and cheap anti malarial treatment is currently the better option. Meanwhile we send people to the moon because destruction of our own fragile world isn’t enough.

I have a relative who's a JW. She's quietly preparing for the apocalypse as I think the JW's think this is beginning of the end times (again. They had one or two of those in the 20th Century that came to naught. Just like this one eventually will).

[quote everythingbackbutyou]@LastTrainEast, as usual it's gloves off for attacking Christians and taking the piss out of their beliefs, in a way that would be viewed with much less acceptance if the target was Muslims, Jews, Hindus or Sikhs. As a Christian, the fact that so many people are totally cool with this is beyond frustrating.[/quote]
I grew up in Christianity so feel the right to be critical but generally I am critical of all faiths. The majority of religious teachings are homophobic, sexist and controlling.

You are missing the point that those infants dying a horrible death don’t get much say in the matter. It’s not like they even live long enough to vote a god who lets black infants die disproportionately to teach white adults a lesson does not sound very benevolent to me.

@LunaHeather

Panda "There are many reluctant attendees in all faiths. If you are part of a conservative religious community the pressure is huge."

But...adults gonna adult?

I agree, you would think adults would leave a faith if they wanted to but many people underestimate the power of religion. If you grew up in a religious community it’s very hard to publicly disagree with everything your family and friends value. People who do not grow up in its power are lucky. Most people assume the church in the UK is loving and generally does good stuff. They don’t realise the intensity of evangelical Christianity. It’s the same in others faiths. I know many ex Muslims who have to pretend to go along with it all.

Islam here - it's not a punishment or anything like that. It just is. But we are told by our faith to not go into a place that is infected by plague, and not to leave our place to travel elsewhere if the plague is where we are. It demands proper hygiene and cleanliness to the best of our ability at all times to prevent contamination. We are also told to search for the cure - that if an illness exists, then the cure (whether or not is has been discovered yet) also exists. Islam encourages education and learning - God wants us (if we are able) to discover more about the world that has been created for us, to evolve and develop, and use this knowledge to help and better humanity.

@KeflavikAirport

You are missing the point that those infants dying a horrible death don’t get much say in the matter. It’s not like they even live long enough to vote a god who lets black infants die disproportionately to teach white adults a lesson does not sound very benevolent to me.

No, you really don’t get it.

It is humans who choose to let those children die. God gave humans a conscience and stewardship of the world.

The children get no say at all; that’s a human choice. It’s the choice of putting our holidays and restaurants above other people’s children dying.

It’s like giving a teenager a car and then saying it’s Gods fault they crashed it and died. The risks associated with children in control of motor cars are very well recorded, but parents still choose to buy them one because ‘everyone has one’ or to make life easier. It can sadly only be the parents fault when the child becomes another tragic statistic. Would you have a God stop production of the internal combustion engine?

So what does God do once he gave humans stewardship of the world? What is the point of God now? Why should the after life be better than this life

I get that. But what's the point of an omnipotent god who sits back and lets that happen?

And what is the point of praying in that case. If God isn’t going to intervene? I am not trying to aggravate people, I am genuinely interested!

@mootymoo

I work for the c of e, we are just praying that the vaccine reduces the illness and death because we are run off our feet delivering food parcels to isolating congregation, visiting the seriously ill and so many funerals. Plus we have 14 couples booked in to marry this year and we want to be able to fulfil their wishes. Oh and please can I get vaccinated ASAP, I'm worried having to meet people

Please can you tell me why God has allowed this pandemic to happen in the first place? If your answer is that He hasn't allowed it, it's just come from an evil place, then if he can't control evil what is the point of praying? Surely thousands of people around the world are praying for their loved ones to be saved and they are still dying? How do you explain that, as a believer?

There's a lot of anger directed at at Christianity in this thread - 'why does your God let this happen' etc.

I think these people need to educate themselves about modern Christianity, this isn't the middle ages, we don't believe God sends plagues to smite us down. Not do we believe that God sits by and let's things happen without stopping them just to punish us. Surprisingly you can believe in God and science at the same time but I don't think skeptics want to hear that, it doesn't fit neatly with their anti religious rants.

So much anger, seriously just move on. If you don't believe in God that's absolutely fine and dandy, off you trot. Why anyone would try and poke holes in anybody else's faith during a time like this I've no idea. We need hope and faith in something, anything, when the world is in such turmoil.

I realise there are some genuinely curious posters here too but this is more in response to the obvious sarcasm here.

The gaslighting horror of religion! Don’t blame God, you’re to blame because you are not healing and helping everyone. It’s ridiculous! Christianity holds people responsible for everything and God is blameless. Christians love making people feel bad about themselves so they turn to god. Tell people they are sick and only you have the medicine to help them. It’s cruel! Of course people should try and help more. However we are only human and can’t resolve everything.

The car analogy is rubbish. Most good parents would get the child driving lessons and help them to be as safe as possible. God is not a good parent. He does not intervene and then sends people to hell for not believing in him. Thankfully he doesn’t exist!

Sorry if this has already been linked, an excellent discourse on the problem of suffering.

www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/opinion/coronavirus-religion.html

This is essentially my feelings on the matter. Faith involves uncertainty by necessity, it's impossible to deal in absolutes when discussing God. So the people in this thread who are trying to seek definitive answers are fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of religion in general.

@DayBath

There's a lot of anger directed at at Christianity in this thread - 'why does your God let this happen' etc.

I think these people need to educate themselves about modern Christianity, this isn't the middle ages, we don't believe God sends plagues to smite us down. Not do we believe that God sits by and let's things happen without stopping them just to punish us. Surprisingly you can believe in God and science at the same time but I don't think skeptics want to hear that, it doesn't fit neatly with their anti religious rants.

So much anger, seriously just move on. If you don't believe in God that's absolutely fine and dandy, off you trot. Why anyone would try and poke holes in anybody else's faith during a time like this I've no idea. We need hope and faith in something, anything, when the world is in such turmoil.

I realise there are some genuinely curious posters here too but this is more in response to the obvious sarcasm here.

I respect people’s personal beliefs but it doesn’t mean I can’t disagree with it. Religion is harmful and regressive. The church had annoying amount of power in the UK. The current Archbishop doesn’t support gay marriage. I think that makes him a person worthy of a critique!

@pandapop17

The gaslighting horror of religion! Don’t blame God, you’re to blame because you are not healing and helping everyone. It’s ridiculous! Christianity holds people responsible for everything and God is blameless. Christians love making people feel bad about themselves so they turn to god. Tell people they are sick and only you have the medicine to help them. It’s cruel! Of course people should try and help more. However we are only human and can’t resolve everything.

The car analogy is rubbish. Most good parents would get the child driving lessons and help them to be as safe as possible. God is not a good parent. He does not intervene and then sends people to hell for not believing in him. Thankfully he doesn’t exist!

This is not the Christianity I experience at all. Please don't lump all the denominations into one homogenous group, there are a wide variety of approaches to the problem of suffering. I think you're misinterpreting a PPs comments here.

Religion is harmful and regressive Pandapop? Oh ok, let's pack up all the food parcels and cancel all the charity work, stop supporting the homeless and heartbroken and bring back all the missionaries around the world supporting impoverished communities to grow. Clearly none of that matters.

No anger here. Just staggered disbelief at the inability to see the gaping holes in the arguments for faith.

Food parcels are charity not religion.

@ineedaholidaynow

Food parcels are charity not religion.

Organised entirely by my church in our local town. Do you not understand the idea of communion? A fundamental concept in Christianity of breaking and sharing of bread to unite us in Christ. Yes, food parcels can be arranged by non religious people but feeding the poor is a basic part of Christian doctrine....you sound like you don't know much about the beliefs you are so set against, which I find strange.

@DayBath

Religion is harmful and regressive Pandapop? Oh ok, let's pack up all the food parcels and cancel all the charity work, stop supporting the homeless and heartbroken and bring back all the missionaries around the world supporting impoverished communities to grow. Clearly none of that matters.

Yes it can be. The attitude to women and gay people spring to mind. Yes you are right faith groups do a lot to help people. My local church runs an excellent food bank. I am also part of a non faith group that helps local families negatively affected by lockdown. Religion is not the magic that makes people help. People of all faiths and none do good work and help others. I don’t need a religion to tell me to help people!

The good that missionaries have done is questionable. Many early missionaries harmed cultures by insisting that people abandon their faith and traditions and become Anglicans! It’s was a form of imperialism! It still happens today. Christian missionaries use charities like Samaritans purse to tell Hindus in Nepal that their faith is evil. I wish they would stop!

@CormoranStrike

Re work ethic. I’m not religious but my mum is. Her current parish priest is young and enthusiastic, and to me is more like a powerhouse of a community social worker.

He runs drop in breakfast clubs, food banks, clothing banks and more, and basically the man never stops. I suspect he was a hyperactive child, and sought out a job that allowed him to constantly evolve.

This also describes the Catholic priest in my extended family (rather uncannily... I wonder if your mum lives in his parish ) I am an apatheist and have minimal time for religion as an institution, but I respect the role faith plays in the lives of many wonderful people, and for sure I know religious officiants who are de facto social workers and counsellors doing a lot of active, important, impactful grassroots work.

Well, surely it's just a failure of our greedy, consumerist capitalist society that we don't pay enough, you know, actual trained social workers and counsellors?