Summary: The relationship between science and religion, two systems of knowing, has been debated over the decades with conceptual approaches such as conflict, replacement, parallel forms, coexistence, etc. The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed debates about this relationship following the restrictions placed on religion by science and the reaction of religious leaders and followers to the containment measures. The project seeks to understand the views of religious leaders, and academics at universities in various fields, on the influence (or not) of the pandemic on their beliefs or non-beliefs and what this portends for the future.
This project focuses on Africa, a continent with high levels of religious beliefs and where many of the prominent religious leaders were once in the academia as highly qualified and rated scientists. Pastors Adejare Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and Daniel Olukoya of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry, have PhD’s in applied mathematics and molecular genetics respectively. Pastors Adeboye and William Kumuyi, who graduated with a First Class in mathematics, and leads the Deeper Life Ministry, were senior academics at the University of Lagos before going into full time ministry. Like Kumuyi, Olukoya also graduated First Class at the University of Lagos and went into medical research post PhD. They are thus seen by their followers as experts in science and religion.
The project will use both media data and interviews.
Newspaper clippings from four African countries from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, will be downloaded using the keywords “covid”, “covid 19” and “Coronavirus” from the NEXIS UK newspaper data base and analysed for perceptions of religious leaders.
Interviews will be conducted in 2 leading African institutions of higher education with academics from various fields: medicine, natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, and humanities, and different faiths. There will be 30 interviews from academics spread across the different faiths and non-believers.
The study will explore notions of compatibility (Elsdon-Baker, F. (2016), conflict (Russell, 2003), independence, dialogue, integration (Barbour, 1997), non-overlapping magisterial (Gould, 1997) and coexistence with cognitive dissonance or cognitive polyphasia (Falade and Bauer, 2018; Legare et al, 2012).
Project deliverables will be 2 research articles, conference presentations and seminars. The research articles will be posted on academic (ResearchGate, ORCID) and social media platforms (Twitter and Facebook) for wider reach.
