Is it right to visit family members during the pandemic, even if they say they don’t want you to come? Philosophy may hold the answer.
Faithful in many religions, including Islam, may turn to healing amulets like necklaces and other small objects in difficult times.
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From magic bowls to holy shirts, Muslim cultures used various devices to protect the user from harm starting in the 11th century. Many of these objects were beautifully designed, too.
The crisis has forced many businesses to close, prompting a spike in unemployment claims.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
With so many people in need of financial support due to the coronavirus crisis, is it right to draw on unemployment when you have savings?
The biblical book of Ezekiel describes a vision of the divine that medieval philosophers understood as revealing the connection between religion and science.
By Matthaeus Merian (1593-1650)
Those experiencing stress and uncertainty amid the coronavirus may find guidance in medieval responses to plagues, which relied on both medicine and prayer.
Buddhist monks in Thailand pray at Phleng temple amid the COVID-19 crisis, May 11, 2020.
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Many in the West may see Buddhism as more of a philosophy than a religion, but for millions of people worldwide Buddhism is very much a faith – and prayer is part of their COVID-19 response.
Tipping from a social distance at The Lucky Devil strip club in Portland, Oregon.
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Ownerless cats may find it harder to find food scraps with restaurants closed during the coronavirus crisis. Given social distancing rules, is it okay to go outside to feed them?
Smiling schoolboys reveal their missing teeth.
Anthony Asael/Art in All of Us /Contributor via Getty Images
During this unsettling time, global leaders have assured children and adults alike that the tooth fairy, free from the risk of infection, is indeed an essential worker.
Volunteers distributing drive-thru iftar meals outside an Islamic center in Falls Church, Virginia.
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Social distancing has made giving to the poor – an obligation under Islam – harder this Ramadan. Meanwhile Muslim nonprofits are feeling the strain of the economic downturn.
Separated families have to make tough calls over parenting during the pandemic.
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Social distancing can be especially hard when it comes to where children of divorced couples should stay – especially when one of the parents has illnesses that puts them at high risk of the coronavirus.
The roads are open, but not yet the shops.
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What are the moral considerations in making the decision to reopen society while mitigating the risk of infections spreading? We asked a philosophy scholar to walk us through the quandary.
Valley of the Dawn members celebrate ‘Day of the Indoctrinator’ at their temple complex in Brazil on May 1. This year’s event is postponed due to coronavirus.
Márcia Alves
Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn faith is often dismissed as a cult. But many of the group’s fantastical rituals are a recognizable reaction to this harsh world of inequality, loneliness and pandemics.
Remote worship is becoming the norm during the pandemic.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Most Christian churches were relying heavily on ‘collection plates’ to pay their bills before the pandemic struck. And less than half were doing any online fundraising as of 2018.
An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is arrested by Israeli security forces for resisting efforts to shut down a synagogue in the Me’a She’arim neighborhood in Jerusalem, April 17, 2020.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
Joyce Dalsheim, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Persecution is central to Jewish collective memory. So when armed police entered ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem to close synagogues due to COVID-19, some residents reacted with fear and suspicion.
Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island in New York.
John Minchillo/AP Photo
From burial sites targeted by grave robbers to disposing of ashes at sea, the job of disposing of the unclaimed dead has a rich history. Sadly, it still goes on today and is on the rise.
Muslim pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, February 2020.
Photo by Abdel Ghani Bashir/AFP via Getty Images
Saudi Arabia is barring international visitors for the hajj. A scholar explains a long history of disease, politics and war that have previously prevented people from making the journey to Mecca.
Some members of New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community defied the government’s ban on gathering for Passover and other religious occasions, Brooklyn, April 16, 2020.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Given that some people look to religious authorities not health officials in times of crisis, faith leaders can promote hand-washing and social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Nary a mask in sight at a market area in Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp for Rohingya, Ukhia, March 24, 2020.
Suzauddin Rubel/AFP via Getty Images
COVID-19 is spreading quickly in Bangladesh. An outbreak in the refugee camps that house some 1 million Rohingya Muslims in cramped, unsanitary quarters would be calamitous.
With a large number of patients with COVID-19, doctors face difficult choices.
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Doctors face difficult choices about rationing medical care. A scholar who studies discrimination argues that those with chronic illnesses and disabilities will be hit the hardest.
He may be praying, but so far the Pope has declined to intervene in Venezuela’s crisis to aid a unified coronavirus response.
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If anyone can convince the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition to come together to fight COVID-19, it’s the Pope. But the Church’s power to negotiate an emergency deal is limited.