As Ebola epidemic tightens grip, west Africa turns to religion for succour

[cbayer]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/ebola-epidemic-west-africa-religion-church-virus-transmission

Fears evangelical churches that hold thousands and services promising ‘healing’ could ignite new chains of transmission

Monica Mark, west Africa correspondent


A healthcare worker puts on protective gear before entering into an Ebola treatment centre in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone, this week Photograph: Michael Duff/AP

Every Sunday since she can remember, Annette Sanoh has attended church in Susan’s Bay, a slum of crowded tin-roofed homes in Freetown. Now as the Ebola epidemic mushrooms in the capital of Sierra Leone, Sanoh has started going to church services almost every night.

“I believe we are all in God’s hands now. Business is bad because of this Ebola problem, so rather than sit at home, I prefer to go to church and pray because I don’t know what else we can do,” said Sanoh, a market trader. At the church she attends, a small building jammed between a hairdresser’s and two homes, she first washes her hands in a bucket of chlorinated water before joining hands with fellow church members as they pray together.

“We pray Ebola will not be our portion and we pray for hope,” said Sanoh, as the disease this week reached the last remaining district that hadn’t yet recorded a case.

By any measure, West Africa is deeply religious and the region is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing Muslim and Christian populations. Posters and banners strewn across the city are constant reminders of the hope many find in spirituality amid a fearful and increasingly desperate situation. In one supermarket, a notice asking customers to pray for Ebola to end was taped on to a fridge full of butter. It urged Muslims to recite the alfathia; Christians, Our Father; and Hindus Namaste. “For non-believers, please believe in God. Amen, Amina,” it finished.

more at link

[Nay]

1. Oh, that'll really help.

[cbayer]

3. It won't hurt. Why roll your eyes at those who find solace?

[skepticscott]

4. Yes, how can it hurt

to encourage people to rely on magical woo-woo to fight disease?

[enki23]

5. Snake handlers, Ebola handlers...

What could go wrong with a little infectious solace?

[rug]

8. Which of course is not what the article states.

It's about finding comfort while, not instead of, fighting disease.

I'm sure your resentment of that is justified somehow.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. That's an awfully blase dismissal there, when it can, in fact, hurt.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. you don't know that at all.

Are people praying instead of seeking medical attention? Are people disregarding safe care practices and praying away the ebola? You have no freaking clue that "it won't hurt".

[skepticscott]

2. Another example of how religion poisons everything

But hey, maybe that good old placebo effect will be as much help here as it is with demonic possession.

[rug]

9. Another example of uninformed, trite, predigested blather.