Scientists have proven a link between religion and epidemics

Religious beliefs can change human behaviour in ways that evolutionary theory cannot predict, especially when it comes to fighting disease, says David Hughes, an evolutionary biologist at Pennsylvania State University.

In a speech at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology congress, Mr Hughes and his colleagues reported that some of the major modern religions emerged at about the same time as infectious diseases became widespread. In other words, the two phenomena helped each other.

The researchers also note that something similar is happening in Malawi today, in response to the AIDS epidemic.

It has long been noted that religion has the ability to motivate a person to help a "distant" person, despite the significant expenditure of time and effort and the lack of benefit. An extreme example of such behavior is caring for a sick person despite the risk of becoming infected. From an evolutionary point of view, this is absolutely meaningless, especially if the sick person is not related to the Good Samaritan.

Together with demographer Jenny Trinitapoli and religious historian Philip Jenkins, Mr. Hughes pored over the relevant literature and found that between 800 and 200 B.C., polio, measles, and smallpox could kill up to two-thirds of the population in densely populated cities. Around the same time, a number of significant religions emerged (of course, dating the emergence of a particular religious movement can be given with great stretch: Christianity is generally considered to have emerged in the first century, and Islam in the seventh, but the ideological platform of these and other religions took centuries to develop). The doctrines varied and influenced people’s reactions in different ways: some fled, others helped the sick.

For example, in the image of Christ, his ability to heal plays a large role. Christianity teaches that helping the sick is worse (contrary to the opinion of some Arab scholars), so Muslims do not try to treat or avoid the sick, focusing on caring for their family members. Judaism teaches that life and death are in the hands of God, that is, only God decides who to heal and who not, so caring for someone unknown does not make sense.

In Malawi, 30% of Christians and only 7% of Muslims regularly visit the sick. About 13% of respondents changed their religion, hoping to get help. As a rule, people go to Pentecostals and African independent churches, where an HIV-infected person is not considered an outcast.

Researchers suggest that epidemics may have contributed to the formation of religions. “When people feel threatened, they seek to unite,” says Michael Blume, a religious studies scholar at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany. Mr. Blume believes that when people moved to the city, old social ties were broken, people needed a new family, and a religious community was perfect for this purpose.

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