Doctors are being forced to make difficult choices regarding who gets ventilators in this pandemic. An expert argues why this has parallels with choices soldiers have to make during wartime.
People take part in a ‘applause for care’ flash mob as part of a campaign to acknowledge the work of employees working in healthcare in Amsterdam.
Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Gratitude has a strong connection to well-being, but more than that, two psychologists say, it could have a powerful effect on others. So, don’t hold back when it comes to expressing it.
Buddhist monks have been chanting sutras to provide spiritual relief during the coronavirus crisis. A scholar of Buddhism translates some Buddhist teachings into ways we can deal with uncertain times.
Apostle Paul and his followers collected aid, likely for early Christians.
Giovanni Paolo Panini /Hermitage Museum via Wikimedia Commons
In the late second century, some Christian groups in Rome began directing financial aid toward people living in another city, who were going through a crisis. That act of giving has lessons for today.
Counting Americans is a complicated process.
Tada Images/Shutterstock.com
Rebecca Tippett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The 2020 census will now count some groups differently than it has in the past. That could make a difference in the final count – affecting which states receive funding and congressional seats.
Being at home at a time of social distancing can set in a feeling of boredom.
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The routine of life has been disrupted for most people as they stay at home to slow down the further spread of the coronavirus. A scholar who studies boredom offers some helpful tips.
People wear a protective mask as they attend a Hindu ritual, known as Melasti, in Bali, Indonesia, on March 22.
Agoes Rudianto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
As the coronavirus spreads and life comes to a standstill, people are coming up with a host of rituals to maintain a sense of order and human connection.
In the German town Winterbach, Catholic Church services are being streamed through YouTube.
Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Faith communities are changing many traditional practices to deal with coronavirus restrictions. A historian of the Bible argues how innovation has long been part of religious practice.
The Plague of Athens.
Michiel Sweerts/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Wikipedia
As the coronavirus spreads far and wide, a political philosopher argues that it is a time to understand that the idea of individual happiness does not work without thinking of the larger good.
A Muslim man prepares for prayer by doing a ritual washing.
mustafagull/Getty Images
Islamic law requires Muslims to ritually clean their body before praying. This guidance has particular relevance at a time when hand-washing is important to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Lucretius Carus.
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
A first-century B.C. Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius was worried that our fear of death could lead to irrational beliefs and actions that could harm society.
An Uighur woman rests near a barricaded structure and heavily armed Chinese policemen in Urumqi.
Ng Han Guan/AP Photo
A scholar who spent 24 months in the Uighur-dominated regions of China recalls when the Chinese crackdown on Uighurs started in 2017 – people were picked up and never returned.
Umrah pilgrims pray near the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File
Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended pilgrimage to its holy sites. Many Muslims travel to these holy sites round the year for a pilgrimage known as Umrah. Here is what it means to their faith.
The Satanic Temple unveils a statue of Baphomet, a winged-goat creature, at a rally for the First Amendment in Little Rock, Arkansas, in August 2018.
AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein
A group known as The Satanic Temple was started with the political goal of advocating for the value of church-state separation. This group is now challenging the traditional definition of religion.
For many evangelicals, faith is a central part of their lives, but there is wide variation in how it is practiced.
Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Many Americans imagine evangelicals as a monolithic group that supports conservative policies and always talks about their faith. Three experts found in a study that the picture is far more complex.
US President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a cricket stadium, in Ahmedabad, India.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
During a recent visit to India, Trump spoke at the world’s largest cricket stadium. Cricket came to India in the 18th century through British sailors and is a revered cultural institution in India.
President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, India.
AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi
A shared commitment to democracy was always key to the India-US relationship – until Trump. A foreign policy expert explains what’s on the agenda for Trump’s trip to India and what’s missing.
Women in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh neighborhood are protesting a new Indian citizenship law that they say will discriminate against Muslims, women – and, particularly, Muslim women.
Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
A round-the-clock strike of Muslim women in a working-class neighborhood of Delhi is India’s most enduring pocket of resistance to religious discrimination, inequality and gender violence.
US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign an agreement ending the US’s 18-year war in Afghanistan, Doha, Feb. 29, 2020.
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images
A peace deal with the Taliban has been signed. But rebuilding Afghanistan after three decades of conflict will take much more than an accord, says a scholar of peacebuilding.