The Religiosity of the COVID Faithful

The mass religion that emerged from COVID

Dec 04, 2021

In this post I will examine how a large segment of the population have formed a mass religion around sentiments about the COVID pandemic.

What has emerged since the beginning of the COVID experience is a new religion. You could call them the COVID Faithful. They have their own belief system, creeds, dogmas, and worship of authorities and deities. This segment of the population follows certain narratives coming from official institutions, authorities, and media outlets with unquestioning conviction. They have become so invested in these narratives and belonging to the official congregation of COVID that they have formed a religious ideology. They place their faith in following this ideology to deliver them and society from COVID and the natural and artificially imposed consequences of the pandemic and the responses to it. Religions are often not established to find the truth, but rather to develop commitment to a single truth. This has become the clear motivation for this ideological group, and is what distinguishes their religious quality. In the following I will explore some of the main characteristics of what makes the COVID Faithful a religion.

The COVID Faithful worship at the alter of the abstract entity of “Science”. To them it is an omniscient, invisible deity who is ultimately superior and whose word is holy. They do not see “Science” as a process or method of finding or establishing truth through inquiry, criticism, and questioning, but as an all-knowing, uniform entity whose will is disseminated through scientific priests and prophets. Their priests wear white robes. I am not disparaging doctors here, simply identifying the religious element of the situation. The official institutions that represent Science are viewed similar to bodies of the official church that deliver the word of their deity. Any politician, scientific professional, or official with a platform issuing dictates will be followed if they are seen as representatives of their deity. The COVID Faithful fear what will happen if they stray from these dictates and orders representing the omniscient deity of Science. They feel they or their loved ones will be punished by sickness or death if they do not follow dictates to mask up, lockdown, vaccinate, and socially distance and isolate. To avoid this they feel they must not stray in their devotion. To them, if society disobeys their fate is sealed with destruction. Any official, professional, or person who should be a representative of their ideology but questions, criticizes, or contradicts the official doctrine of belief is immediately cast out as a heretic. Those officials and professionals who remain true and devoted are given sainthood. Such as Fauci. Who recently said any attacks on him are attacks on science (https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/06/09/fauci-on-gop-criticism-attacks-on-me-quite-frankly-are-attacks-on-science/?sh=5738bd274542). This perfectly highlights the religious sentiments among the COVID Faithful.

They have their own ideological dogma that can’t be questioned and is followed with conviction. It is heretical for them to question the truth and validity of the official belief system instituted by their church of Science. The most obvious is the matter-of-fact manner that mass vaccination is held up as the only possible way to defeat COVID-19 and return to “normalcy”. If the only way to be delivered from damnation and get to heaven in branches of Christianity is through accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, the only way among the COVID Faithful to be delivered from the damnation of COVID is to accept Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J and their vaccines as your savior and ticket to salvation. No real discussion or consideration of alternative methods is permitted. Nothing that is not ordained by official representatives of their deity of Science can be allowed to exist as alternative truth. These alternative truths must be challenged and torn down through hostile attacks on dissenters and campaigns of discreditation and censorship like some form of religious warfare. For if alternative truths are allowed to exist, it discredits their own religious institutions.

We see the same religious conviction when it comes to masks and lockdowns. There is no real critical questioning of if these methods are/were effective or if the collateral damage resulting from their imposition is too great to justify their use. For example, a recent study found babies born after the pandemic have significantly lower IQs, which pandemic responses such as social isolation and not seeing as many faces due to masks during a critical period of development likely have significant effects (https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2031). Not to mention the increase of unemployment and poverty as well as the deaths resulting from lockdowns (https://nypost.com/2021/03/22/the-data-shows-lockdowns-end-more-lives-than-they-save/). Because the priestly caste of their religion has committed to these measures in a dogmatic fashion, the COVID Faithful follow these commandments with religious obedience. Any evidence or reasoning that may indicate the failure or ineffectiveness of these commandments is often labeled as “disinformation” or “misinformation”. Which has become religious slang to uphold the authority of the church of Science. When the ineffectiveness or failures of their ideological methods are acknowledged, another response is to blame those who did not exercise the same obedience to these commandments. If only everyone would have been more devoted these practices would have worked. Their initial response is to double-down and blame those who dared question these commandments. It is never their practices or beliefs that need to be questioned, instead they must question and point to who it was that did not show the same conviction to following the practices ordained by their priests.

The COVID Faithful make enemies out of anyone who does not accept or questions their ideology. They view dissenters as morally inferior, which reinforces the superiority of their own sentiments and beliefs. Because of this they feel justified in treating non-believers in hostile and discriminatory ways. The unvaccinated are now gaining equivalency to the accused witches of previous centuries. Just as these witches were accused of having evil spirits inside of them and bringing issues to the rest of society, now the unvaccinated are accused of housing a virus and spreading sickness and death wherever they go irrelevant of the evidence that someone is actually infected. They are guilty until proven innocent. There are open calls to evict the unvaccinated from society and to keep them separate from those following the official doctrine of COVID protocol; even if unvaccinated people have immunity from previous infection and are using other supplemental methods to protect themselves. To the COVID Faithful, because the unvaccinated are not following doctrine they need to be punished. No nuance or compromises can be allowed. Just as with religious salvation, salvation from COVID and imposed restrictions can only come to true believers who follow the teachings ordained by the church of Science and its COVID priests.

The COVID Faithful have their own religious creeds and confessions and symbols of faith. They attest to the effectiveness of vaccination, masks, and lockdowns to proclaim their faith in their deity of Science. They advertise religious slogans such as “safe and effective”, “slow the spread”, “stay home, save lives”, and “Trust Science”. They are plastered among social media posts and pictures. These act as mantras and symbols to affirm one’s faith. They post profile pictures in masks and with filters that showcase their solidarity with their community of faith. People advertise and proclaim their vaccination status as a symbolic token of their devotion and to be accepted among their community of believers. Masks are worn by many partly out of belief they work on some level, but also because they are a symbol of their religious belief. Wearing a mask is similar on one level to wearing a cross. It’s a symbol of faith. It communicates belief. Wearing a mask can also be viewed as an act of obedience to religious authorities and their god of Science. I am not denying there are other, reasonable motives for mask wearing. I am simply pointing out the religious component that is ingrained in the symbolic behavior and a part of the COVID Faithful’s (likely unconscious) psychological motivation for wearing a mask. The same faith-based symbology can be found when members of this religion gather together and socially distance even when it is not necessary, such as outdoors in open space. The actual effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the act is not as important as the symbology of the act to show solidarity among the faithful and communicate belief.

I will end this examination here. My purpose with this post was to make clear how a religious ideology has formed around certain beliefs, sentiments, institutions, and authorities related to COVID-19. Of course, there is nuance among this all and what I wrote may seem hyperbolic or like an extreme way of viewing things. However, every religion taken at face value likely seems extreme. No matter the range of motivations and sentiments among the crowd I label as the COVID Faithful, there is without a doubt a religious characteristic and quality to this movement. It is plain to see for most of us who are outside observers. I want to also make clear I am not saying just because someone is vaccinated or shares some beliefs and behaviors mentioned that they are a part of this religion I proposed. I am saying there is a large group of the population who share all of the characteristics that I mentioned and have formed their own religious identity around them. All religious thinking that stifles free thought, restricts freedom, and doesn’t allow criticism and dissent is bad. It is ironically the opposite of true science. This is why I must point out what I, and many others, see happening among the COVID Faithful. Bad things have been done throughout history when dogmatic thinking and behavior permeate a population. We need to do what we can to point it out and ultimately stop it before it goes even further.

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