“I wanted to become a theologian; for a long time I was unhappy. Now, behold, God is praised by my work even in astronomy.” – Johannes Kepler
“What more powerful form of study of mankind could there be than to read our own instruction book?” – Francis S. Collins
“Those who have dissected or inspected many [bodies] have at least learnt to doubt; while others who are ignorant of anatomy and do not take the trouble to attend it are in no doubt at all.” – Giovanni Battista Morgagni
“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
“[Defining Life] The constant uniformity of phenomena under diversity of external influences.” – Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus
“The significant chemicals of living tissue are rickety and unstable, which is exactly what is needed for life.” – Isaac Asimov
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14
DIALOGO DIALOGO-CONFERENCES & JOURNAL
DIALOGO - Online Archive.
DIALOGO - The 10th Scholarly Meeting on the Dialogue between Science and Theology(Proceedings detailed information)
Volume: 6, Issue: 2, June 2020 Powered by:RCDST (Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology), Ovidius Univesity of Constanta. Romania
The new Coronavirus, namely Sars-CoV-2, took the world by surprise and grew into a pandemic worldwide (called COVID-19 pandemic) in a couple of months since the beginning of 2020. It managed to lockdown at home almost half of the world population under the threat of illness and sudden death. Due to the extreme medical advises of containing the spread and damages of this threat, mostly directed towards social distancing, public gatherings cancelation and contact tracing, each State imposed such regulations to their people and for all areas of social activity, including the religious ones. This articles analyses four topics: 1. Restrictions imposed by the state and reactions by religious organisations. The theological-ethical response focused on the fact that all religons what to save lifes and defeat death. 2. The pandemic shows the sensitive relation between state and religions and shows the differences in power relations in the different countries. the theological-ethical response calls for a partnership between the state and the religions in their territory. 3. The relation between science and religions is tested during the pandemic. Whereas the majority of believers adhere to scientific results, a good part refuses scientific knowledge. The theological-ethical response of the authors is that science and religion are complementary and not contradictory. 4. Pandemics as situations of high uncertainty are often accompanied by conspiracy theories who claim to know who is guilty for the disaster, who is the skapegoar, which has to be punished. The theological-ethical response gives theological reasons to say no to conspiracies and scapegoats and yes to take responsibility wherever we are in order to save lives.
Author keywords
human rights
imposition
faith
religiousness
pandemic
Covid19
public gatherings
religion
conventional medicine
State law
holistic treatment
social conflicts
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