Confrontation with God under the shadow of Coronavirus pandemic: an empirical examination of Iran’s experience

The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic drew attention to God and religion in confrontation with natural disasters. An undeniable fact about Islamic Republic of Iran is that the country is subject to severe international sanctions. The prevalence of Coronavirus infection in these conditions and the disruption of people’s work and financial affairs put them in dire economic straits. The Coronavirus also posed a theological challenge in Iran, and some of the Shiite religious beliefs were challenged by this. The present study asks whether the damage derived from the Coronavirus caused a change in religious faith in Iran. It empirically examines the subject in three interrelated religious dimensions: cognitive, conceptual, and communicative aspects of faith. Another part of the study asks whether Coronavirus is good or evil, natural or metaphysical, and is it a punishment for human sins or a divine test? In order to investigate the possible impact of the Coronavirus epidemic on faith in God, an online survey was conducted in the first wave of the outbreak of Coronavirus in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since direct access to the sample population during the time of the outbreak of Coronavirus was not permitted, a Virtual Snowball Sampling is applied. The research findings indicate that religious faith has bi-directionally changed both separately and in the form of its three components. While positive change has affected an average of 32 percent of the sample population, negative change has occurred in about 5 percent. Furthermore, it is found that negative changes in religiosity have occurred more among those who have been very highly or highly religious.