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Religion and disease have always been intimately entwined. Deadly epidemics that swept through ancient populations millennia ago played an intimate role in the rise of modern religions, ScienceNOW reports. Conversely, differences in the way religions deal with disease and the caring of the sick have shaped the course of epidemics over time. Of main interest to Penn State evolutionary biologist David Hughes is why some religions, in particular Christianity, emphasize the importance of caring for the diseased, even at the risk of one’s own death.
In an attempt to study this in a modern setting, Hughes and colleagues surveyed religious attitudes among the people of Malawi, where AIDS has become the leading cause of death among adults. They found that 30 percent of people who ...
