NEW DELHI: Representatives of various religions and interfaith groups issued a joint statement on Wednesday emphasising that true religion must be in harmony with science and acceptable to reason.Coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the statement was issued by faith leaders including Parmarth Niketan’s Swami Chidanand Saraswati; Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chief of the All India Imam Organisation; Archbishop of Delhi and Bangalore, Anil Joseph Thomas Couto and Peter Machado; Rabbi Ezekiel Malekar , chief priest of the Judah Hayam Synagogue in New Delhi; Swami Shantatmananda, secretary of Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi; the office of Public Affairs of the Baha’is of India; and chairman of the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, Paramjeet Singh Chandok, among others.Calling religion the “most powerful means for mobilising human conscience to serve the common good”, the faith leaders said, “It would be an unpardonable loss if the resources of faith are left scattered and in disarray and not allowed to come together as a singular force to lend impetus to this collective endeavour....A word of clarification is in order about the cases of religious fanaticism, superstition and contempt for science that are being expressed in the name of religion in the context of the pandemic. These have done incalculable harm not only by exposing thousands to the virus but also by vitiating public discourse with half-truths, falsehoods, conspiracy theories and doomsday narratives….What dispels this darkness is the principle that true religion must be in harmony with science and acceptable to reason,” they said.Warning against the ‘misuse’ of faith, they also said statements and prescriptions made in the name of religion must “not create confusion on how this pandemic must be addressed or contradict established scientific advice. It is in response to this urgent imperative that we, the representatives of various faiths and interfaith groups are issuing this statement to reiterate those principles common to all religions that have the greatest bearing on our response to the present crisis. We appeal to those of all religions to unite in a common commitment to these principles and, in the larger national interest, to put aside their differences,” the statement said.“The age-old habit of dividing the world into an ‘us’ and ‘them’ (many times evoked in the name of religion) and of restricting the sphere of concern to the particular group to which we belong, has shown to be a dangerous and life-threatening delusion in the context of the present crisis,” the faith leaders added in their statement.