Scientists have proven the link between religion and epidemics
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Religious beliefs can change a person's behavior in a way that evolutionary theory can not predict, especially when it comes to fighting the disease, says David Hughes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pennsylvania (USA).
In a speech at the Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, Mr. Hughes and his colleagues reported that a number of major religions of our time appeared almost simultaneously with the widespread incidence of infectious diseases. In other words, the two phenomena helped each other.
Researchers also note that today something similar happens in Malawi - in response to the AIDS epidemic.
It has long been noted that religion has the ability to motivate a person to help "distant", despite the considerable time and effort and lack of profit. An extreme example of this behavior is the care of the patient in spite of the risk of contracting. From the point of view of evolution, this is completely meaningless, especially if the patient is not a relative of the good Samaritan.
Together with the demographer Jenny Trinitapoli and the historian of religion Philip Jenkins, Mr. Hughes studied the relevant literature and found that in the period from 800 to 200 BC, e. In densely populated cities, polio, measles and smallpox could kill up to two-thirds of the population. Approximately at the same time, a number of significant religions were born (of course, dating of the appearance of this or that religious trend can be given with great strains: it is commonly believed that Christianity arose in the first century, and Islam in the seventh, but the ideological platform of these and other religions evolved centuries). The dogma was different and influenced the reaction of people in different ways: some fled, others helped the sick.
For example, in the image of Christ, his ability to heal is important. Christianity teaches that helping a sick person is ill (contrary to the opinion of some Arab scholars), so Muslims do not try to heal or avoid the sick, focusing on caring for members of their family. Judaism teaches that life and death are in the hand of God, that is, only God decides whom to heal and who does not, therefore it is not meaningful to care for someone.
In Malawi, 30% of Christians and only 7% of Muslims regularly visit patients. Approximately 13% of the respondents changed their religion, hoping to get help. As a rule, people go to Pentecostals and to African independent churches, where the HIV-infected person is not considered a renegade.
The researchers suggest that epidemics could contribute to the formation of religions. "When people feel threatened, they seek to unite," notes Michael Blume, a religious scholar at the University of Friedrich Schiller (FRG). Mr. Blume believes that when moving to the city, former social ties were broken, people needed a new family, and the religious community was perfectly suited for this purpose.
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