• Question: what are your thoughts on religion?????

    Asked by to Sarah, Sam, Roberto, Nate, Nat on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sarah Casewell

      Sarah Casewell answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I’m not religious, although I was raised as a christian.
      Religion, by its nature, asks you to take a lot on faith – you have to believe a lot of things without proof. As a scientist, I like proof, or evidence of things. Part of my job is to devise tests or experiments to show things, or explain things.
      You can’t do that with religion – you have to just believe which I find difficult to do.

    • Photo: Nate Bastian

      Nate Bastian answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I’m an athiest. Like Sarah says, the best part about science is that you can question things, nothing is taboo. If you don’t believe in someone’s results, you can test them for yourself. Therefor I get very uncomfortable when I’m told something, and also told that I’m not allowed to question it.

    • Photo: Natasha Stephen

      Natasha Stephen answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I am not religious but I was brought up going to church. I was always told that the minute I didn’t believe in God, I didn’t have to go though so that is exactly what I did; I stopped going to church at around 12 years old.

      It is difficult as a scientist to believe in religion because there is such a lack of evidence to support it. It’s not impossible though, I work with a number of scientists who are religious and have no question about their faith. They view science as their career and they can keep that entirely separate from that faith, which I think is pretty amazing.

    • Photo: Roberto Trotta

      Roberto Trotta answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Religion or spirituality are parts of how humans try to understand the world around them, and to make sense of what happens to us on a very personal level. As such, those are very different views than science, which on the contrary is objective and evidence-based.

      I don’t think there is a clash between science and religion. It’s like saying that there is no place in the world for novels because they are made up — sure, novels, like religion, might not be built on demonstrable facts about the Universe, but that doesn’t mean that we should throw them all out of the window. As long as they have a personal meaning and they help us live a more fulfilled and meaningful life, I don’t see why we shouldn’t give them value.

      Where I draw the line is when religious views are allowed to spill over the domain of science, in direct contradictions with well-established scientific facts. For example, to actually believe that the world is 6,000 years old (as the Bible says) is intellectually not acceptable, as we have ample proof that the universe is over 13 billion years old. So it’s important to realize that religion pertains the spiritual world, not the material/scientific one.

      I was brought up a Christian (in the Italian tradition), but I no longer go to church.

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