COVID-19 And The Loose Logic Of Religion -By Idowu Odeyemi

Humans developed science to provide evidential solutions to the problems of the universe rather than the speculative prepositions of ancient philosophers who, although rigorous, are moved by the desire to fulfill their curiosities. Albeit science has been an effort to drive solutions to human problems since the time of Aristotle, modern science, as we know it today, did not start until the 17th century –Newtonian age- when people start developing the scientific thread of observation, experimentation, formulation of hypothesis and the verification of inquiries. The 17th century kick-started human existence with the kind of solution that cures diseases that were once a symbol of witchcraft or God’s punishment for earthly sinners; religious people had to look forward to a life after death before someone they consider a sinner get punished. Scientific inquiries indict humans with the agility to accept their freedom, act in accordance with such freedom, and face the consequences of their choices.

One of the credits to science is its effort to anticipate and solve problems through the numerous tools it has developed. Humans, after the advancement of science in modern times, now put all hope on science to solve their natural problems. Human beings, putting all hope on science to solve their health problems, now focus on how to earn money and lead a good life.

Covid-19, the world’s new unseen enemy (seen through scientific tools alone –pastors, imams, and Onisegun finds it incorporeal), has numbed the whole world and with it, dropping millions of people dead like dropping flies. The pandemic caused by covid-19 instigates science as the hope for humans’ survival and once again, humans count on science to solve this unseen problem. Even people who put hope in unseen forces now have to count on science to solve the problem this antagonist of human movement bought forth.

With Covid-19 countries that are presumed as powerful now look so little and skepticism pervades the mind as one thinks about their presumed powers. Nations with little economic budget were let down by presuming powerful nations that they have always count on.

The race for a vaccine has been the major contention for the world’s powerful nations as they restrict their citizens into their homes. Nations with colonial history and small economies have no hope to find a vaccine for this virus; instead, they have provided measures to lockdown their citizens and count on leading scientific countries as they seek and aim to find a vaccine.

Countries with corrupt leaders that have carted away the finances of the Ministry of Health are facing the consequences of their corrupt practices. They no longer can travel outside of the country to attend to their health issues that tend to by doctors well trained in Ivy League universities in foreign countries that fund their health and education sectors.

The restriction of human movements under lockdown rules pushed many countries into economic recession. Once again, covid-19 did not leave out presume powerful countries out of this economic havoc. With the presumed powerful countries getting the most infections, strict lockdown rules made businesses shut down and public sectors suspend work. Covid-19 declines societies of wealthy economics and deodorized the entire world’s economy. Private sectors, to maintain themselves in the sector, have to cut down salaries or sack their employees. Small business owners have to lockdown their shop hence leaving them in emotional and mental instability of what to eat and how to pay their rents. This economic crisis the world might have plugged into will be huge havoc for political and community leaders who are throwing punches with criticisms.

Once again, the competence of such organizations as the World Health Organization has enshrined in skepticism. The organization has faced criticism from the world, mostly political leaders of the world. Many powerful leaders have criticized their sluggish response to the covid-19 as the cause of the pandemic.

Covid-19 no doubt is the reason for much community havoc of this time. With the percentage of unemployment increasing due to loss of jobs and businesses shutting down, many individuals have fled towards crimes –kidnapping, robbery, and rape- as their means of survival.

Religious leaders who attribute everything to a loving, omniscient, and benevolent God are at once facing the issues of interpretation, evaluation, and understanding His attributes. With curious religious followers thinking and asking if God has not informed their leaders about the Covid-19 pandemic, religious leaders are confronted with a quandary regarding what to tell their followers who are feed the delusions of nothing is coming that God is not aware of. For every leaf that plucks from a tree, God is aware of it. The omniscience and omnibenevolent God religion fed humans, again, face the criticism of exposure to evil. With church and mosques under lockdown, wise religious leaders asked that their followers adhere to the guidelines laid down by health experts, government, and institutions while some pig-headed religious leaders were prosecuted for violations of orders:  no crowd singing and dancing and shouting to the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven above to hear their supplications at midnight.

If anything, Covid-19 has been an absurdist teacher robbing on our face the meaninglessness and lack of a prior values inherent in our universe. It has again bought to our consciousness that, with death, all we ever aim to achieve and gain in this world is inherently futile. With covid-19 not selecting who it kills base on class, the color of the skin, age, citizens, or immigrants, we have come to the understanding that there are threatening diseases that can wipe out the entire human existence if protective measures are not taken and science continue to be low funded.

To imagine the world, with all its scientific advancements, will be a congregation hoping for a solution before the Covid-19 pandemic would be a flawed imagination propagated by a mind that thinks tragedy. One now subconsciously thinks of our mere existence: how we are now detached from our own inter-subjective agreed reality of hustling and buzzing.

Covid-19 has brought a new order to the world. The most evident order comes in the area of human engagement. Covid-19 has instigated a new way by which the humans’ engage with each other: One can no longer hug a friend he/she miss and see for the first time in ten years. One can no longer walk outside of his/her home without putting on a facemask as an effort to stop covid-19 from spreading. People have to self-isolate themselves after every interstate journey.

Political leaders now have to face an unprecedented problem and seek solutions for the betterment of their followers and entire citizens. Covid-19 made solitude humans’ ally like ever before. Normalcy now depends on the scientist, health practitioners, and the scientific firm we, through how the government used our taxes, have built. We must then ask the question, where is the place of God through religion in finding solutions to human concrete issues? Throughout history, we know washing with the blood, sacrificial redemptions, bended knees, holy wars, and crusades can’t solve human problems.

If the only offering of religion is vindictive punishments for the irreligious and dining with the Holy Ghost for the religious in the face of human sufferings, we must be critical about its logic.

Idowu Odeyemi is a 21-year-old philosophy M.A candidate, poet, and essayist.