Watching the virus plow through the Southern states, an area that used to be known as the “Bible Belt” (make what you wish of those two facts together): It must be clear, after more than a year and many thousands of deaths, additional praying is not going to get us out of this onslaught, Jesus is not coming down to get rid of COVID-19. There have been several opinion pieces written about the conflict between fundamentalist belief and science. None addresses the “why” behind this conflict. With my jaundiced eye, I will try one possibility.
Science has always presented the possibility of refutation of religious explanations of events such as those laid out in Genesis. The concern is that if any claim in the Bible is shown to be incorrect, all of the claims become suspect. Belief is such that it cannot trump hard facts, i.e. the age of the universe, or the existence of dinosaurs! Explanations that were sufficient for a semi-literate, nomadic people 2,000-plus years ago are no longer operational.
Gary Morrison
Valencia
