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In The Plague, how does religion affect the town's mindset and decisions?
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In The Plague, religion influences the townspeople's mindset by providing a framework for understanding and coping with the plague, although Camus critiques its effectiveness. While some, like Father Paneloux, attribute the plague to sin and call for repentance, others, like Rieux, reject religious explanations, believing that human action and solidarity are necessary. Camus argues that conventional religion offers inadequate solutions and that concrete actions are more effective in addressing suffering.
As with most of the work by Albert Camus, The Plague is highly critical of organized religion. When a plague hits the Algerian city of Oran, the townspeople are left to live in isolation. Many of the townspeople are forced to deal with this plague through their religion, particularly because they are left virtually powerless. While it's very interesting to look at how the townspeople are influenced by religion, it's also quite important to focus on Rieux.
Rieux is often influenced by religion in a different manner. Where many other townspeople find their strength and make their decisions based on their religion, Rieux uses his lack of religion to guide him. At one point in the novel, the text reads,
Rieux said . . . if he believed in an all-powerful God he would cease curing the sick and leave that to Him. But no one in the world...
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believed in a God of that sort . . . And this was proved by the fact that no one ever threw himself in Providence completely. (56)
Rieux's skepticism of religion assists him in being a moral man. In his view, if God does not truly exist, it becomes man's job to take care of each other and the world. The existence of an all-powerful, all-loving God, according to Rieux, would thus end the need for charity in man.
Father Paneloux says at one point, "We must accept the dilemma and choose either to hate God or to love God. And who would dare choose to hate Him?" In other words, those condemned to suffer the plague may find contempt for God for His merciless; others may praise him for his immaculate will. Others still, such as Rieux, may find it as evidence of God's nonexistence and consequently take it upon themselves to perform their own charity.
Camus is critical of Christianity in The Plague. In chapter 11, when the people flock to church to hear Father Paneloux's words on the cause of the plague and what to do about it, his ideas are not helpful.
First, the plague, Father Paneloux says, is due to people's sin. God is punishing the guilty for their crimes. Yet, as many critics have noted, while Father Paneloux fills his congregation with a sense of guilt, he himself takes no responsibility for the church's participation in sin: it is "you" who have sinned, he tells them, not "we."
Using what to Camus's mind is a false logic to explain the plague as punishment for sin, Paneloux only contributes to the panic. And finally, after all his vivid fire and brimstone talk, Paneloux's ending words, calling for brotherly love, are insipid. In fact, by the following day, the sermon's impact is already weakening, leading to apathy.
Camus's point is that conventional religion misleads people with false solutions and is inadequate to the task at hand. Suffering in the end is not due to sin. Suffering makes no sense. Vague calls to brotherly love lead to apathy. Better help is found in concrete action.