• Question: If you're religious then does it effect your work or your belief in what you're doing?

    Asked by anon-233322 to Varun, Sammie, Rebecca, Anna, Alin, Adam on 12 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-232812.
    • Photo: Varun Ramaswamy

      Varun Ramaswamy answered on 12 Nov 2019: last edited 12 Nov 2019 12:34 pm

      Nice question! But not really…because I am a Hindu, and Hindu religious texts actually have explained a lot of scientific phenomenon right from genetics to nuclear weapons! Many historians believe that Hindu texts contain the secret to making very powerful nuclear weapons.

      But in general too, I don’t think that religion would affect science, because they are 2 different sides of the same coin. In science, we look at a ball bouncing and we say “ah. seems like the ball is attracted to the earth”. Notice that that is only the answer to “how” something happens, but science cannot answer “why” something happens. We can never tell why reality is the way it is. So that is the unknown that religious texts refer to as God.

      So we are essentially in the same page, just speaking two different languages.

    • Photo: Samantha Firth

      Samantha Firth answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      That is a great question! It doesn’t affect mine, personally. I think lots of people expect scientists to be atheists – but I know so many great scientists who also practice different religions!

    • Photo: Rebecca Shaw

      Rebecca Shaw answered on 12 Nov 2019: last edited 12 Nov 2019 1:19 pm

      I’m an atheist so this doesn’t really apply to me. Sometimes though, the ethics and morals that I uphold can conflict with some of the research I am doing. When this happens, I try to rationalise what the purpose of what I am doing is and how this can benefit our work and in turn our research output. If this doesn’t work I talk it over with my boss and my work friends to try to find a solution to my problem and either talking it over can help or find another way to do it!

    • Photo: Anna Kalorkoti

      Anna Kalorkoti answered on 13 Nov 2019:

      I was raised Christian, and there were people in my church who viewed certain areas of science (especially evolution) as against Christianity. But there were also people who didn’t take this view, and instead believed that God created evolution. After reading about why scientists think evolution happened, I decided I agreed with the second group of people, and as Varun said, looked to science for the “how” and religion for the “why”.

      Rebecca makes a very good point about ethics, as well. I work for a defence company, which means that some of the things I work on are used by soldiers. There are some people who wouldn’t want to do this kind of work because their religion says that war is always wrong. Other people might not want to do any kinds of experiments on animals, even if it meant saving human lives. Those are personal decisions and it’s important to decide for yourself what you do and don’t feel comfortable working on, whatever your reasons are.

    • Photo: Alin Elena

      Alin Elena answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      I like to think about myself that I am a critical thinker. I was never really religious, my family was relaxed about that, we used to go to church for easter. When I was a teenager I had to study religion at school. After reading the bible I have decided religion is not for me. In time I read other “holly books” from various religions and they never stop amassing me how inconsistent logically they can be in their arguments. How sure they are about what is right and wrong or what is virtue and sin. Personally I struggle to see how one can live as a scientist and as a religious person at the same time but that is maybe just me thinking too much.

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