According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu “is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.”  Anybody with this knowledge and some common sense might try to avoid situations involving shaking hands and kissing large numbers of people.  It just so happens that many activities done in churches are highly conducive to spreading the flu virus.  People greet each other with kisses and handshakes, take communion from someone who has shaken many hands, drink from the same chalice, dip their hands in the same font of holy water, and so on.

While some houses of worship have issued guidelines to its members to mitigate the spread of viruses, others have decided to throw caution to the wind and simply put their health and safety in the hands of the god they worship.  It would seem to me that humans who put their faith in a higher power to save them from a virus that has no awareness of one’s religious beliefs would have a significantly higher risk of being naturally selected out of existence.

Even those who do abide by the safety guidelines would likely have a higher chance of getting sick.  Think about it – your physical proximity and interactions with other people increases the likelihood of getting sick.  For the time that you are in church, you’re confining yourself in an enclosed room or building with dozens if not hundreds of other people.  Most people “have” to go to work or school so they pretty much deal with that risk.  One doesn’t “have” to go to church – unless you’re the priest or pastor.  Of course, if you’re the priest, then going to church is your job so you would fall into the category of somebody just going to work.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the folks who so firmly believe that there is no such thing as natural selection became the clearest modern day example of natural selection doing its thing?