5 Interfaith Leaders Answer: Does Faith Conflict With Science During COVID-19?

Panelists at the World Religions Conference in 2020.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community in western Canada — primarily Alberta and British Columbia — hosted its annual World Religions Conference on Dec. 8. Their goal this year was to answer one main question in response to the pandemic: is faith at odds with science?

Panelists included local leaders from several faith traditions in the community, including Baptist Christian Rev. Nathan Friedt, Blackfoot Elder Herman Manyguns, LDS Christian Tye Barret, Muslim Imam Zahid Abid and United Church Rev. Marilyn Carroll. 

Here’s what they had to say. 

1. The Prophet Muhammad says there is a cure for every disease

The statement is not written explicitly in the Quran, but rather in a hadith — one of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings. These sayings are contained with the Sunna, Muhammad’s daily practice, and serve as the primary religious text for Muslims outside of the Quran. 

The hadith that proclaims a cure for all disease is found in the Book of Medicine (Kitab Al-Tibb) and says that “Allah has sent down both the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically, but use nothing unlawful.”

This means that there is or will be a halal cure for every disease, even if it hasn’t been found yet. Imam Abid said this is because God has given humans technology and science in order to develop these cures.

He quoted the leader of the Ahmaddiya Muslim Community, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who has noted the development of medicine to the point that once untreatable illnesses are now seen as very simple.  

“Such progress should not lead one to think that, God forbid, human kind holds an equal share in the sovereignty of God Almighty,” Ahmad said. “In fact, it is a favor of God that he has granted humans such intellect so as to discover new treatments.”

2. Christians have been told to gather

In Hebrews, a book of the Bible in the New Testament, Christians receive the following command:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Friedt says it’s the primary reason why Christians neglect COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the government that prevent them from meeting in person. His congregation has been meeting in person since restrictions have loosened, following all other mask and social distancing guidelines. 

“There’s nothing in the Bible that says ‘Christians, you are not allowed to wash your hands, or wear a mask, or socially distance,’ so there’s nothing that’s in opposition from God’s word to the science guidelines we are receiving right now,” Friedt said.

It’s this principle that he uses to guide his church in following safety regulations. And in response to the verse in Hebrews, he doesn’t discount Zoom or other online platforms as places to meet. 

3. COVID-19 controversy can be handled the same as any other church dispute

Faith leaders admit that their congregants may affirm the night’s core question — that faith is at odds with science — and have difficulty accepting the restrictions set in place by the government. 

How do they handle it?

“Controversy is not new to the church,” Carroll said. “It’s always about people feeling like they’re heard and valued, and feeling like there’s room for them in the circle even if they don’t share the same views.”

Friedt says he and other leaders of his congregation are pursuing similar goals, especially because there is a difference of opinion in his church. 

“We’re not trying to bring further division by picking a side,” he said. “We’re just saying, ‘has any of these restrictions or guidelines gone against God’s word?’” 

A focus on unity allows these places of worship to continue without alienating congregants and promote the safety of their communities. 

4. A plague in the Roman Empire helped early Christianity grow

The Plague of Cyprian spread from Ethiopia to Rome, Greece and Syria in approximately 250 CE. It wasn’t eradicated for two decades, and in its height, thousands of people died daily in Rome. 

Christians at the time played an active role in attempting to care for the sick and burying the dead. Clergy who were able to pass on the message of the Bible presented a world in which disease was not the punishment of an angry deity but rather a product of sin that God could save them from. Many converted to Christianity during this period as a result. 

It connects to the messages of other leaders, who relied on the response to pandemics past from religious leaders to guide their response now. 

Abid also referenced the way Muhammad dealt with a plague in Syria during his rule. Muhammad introduced an idea that has become a familiar one: “When you hear that [a plague] is in a land, do not go to it and if it occurs in a land that you are already in, then do not leave it, fleeing from it.”

Native communities draw on their own traditions. 

“We’ve had quite the trail we’ve had to follow,” Manyguns said. In his tribe, he references particularly the spread of disease that came with Christopher Columbus and other colonizers. But then and now, it hasn’t eradicated the Blackfoot oral tradition or spirituality.

“Today, we’re still having our ceremonies,” he said “We still have the faith; we still have the trust in God.”

5. Faith leaders are adapting to challenges and focusing on spiritual growth

“With this pandemic and other sicknesses and other bad things that happen in the world, we have the opportunity to be humbled,” Barret said. “And when we’re humbled, we have more of an affinity for God.”

The pandemic has presented a series of challenges for each faith tradition, these leaders say, but they emphasized the fact that the time they had spent at home had allowed them to spend more time with their families, getting to know them at a deeper level and training up their children in worship together. 

And, to answer their night’s question, these leaders were in agreement that faith does not contradict science in regards to the pandemic. 

“I would describe faith as having a relationship with a God of wonder and mystery,” Carroll said. “And science is about explaining the wonders of the world.”

Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and Evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.