• Question: Do you believe in God? And has your research had any effect on your religious views?

    Asked by jammydodger to Pedro, Susanne, Robert, Clare, Mariana on 9 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by jordonsid.
    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      A hot question. I personally don’t believe. And, in my opinion, is difficult to put together the idea of the world being created by God and then being a scientist. But I know people who rather believe in a God, a superior identity, that didn’t create the world but exists to take care of us, and that are very good scientists.

    • Photo: Pedro Velica

      Pedro Velica answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      If another scientist tells me he found something new and exciting the first thing I ask is evidence!

      How did you do it?
      How much of it?
      When?
      By how much?
      How tall?

      If the evidence is clear I have no option but to believe in it. If the evidence is not good, I don’t believe.
      So far I have not seen convincing evidence that God exists so I don’t believe.

      Maybe my way of thinking has changed because of my work but maybe I have become a scientist because I like to think like this.

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      Actually, I used to, strongly. I went to church several times a week, Christian Fellowship at school, bible-thumping holiday camps, the whole enchilada.
      But the trouble is, I fundamentally like asking questions and arguing and taking things to bits. And whenever the priests and teachers and the like said something that was supposed to be absolutely true, well, I wondered if it was or not. And I came to the conclusion that people who made pronouncements about God were often pretty stupid. And some of them were telling me I HAD to believe things that were stupid.
      Well, I didn’t think God put us here to do stupid things, and it kind of spoilt the whole religion for me.

      Of course, just because a few priests say a few stupid things, that doesn’t actually say anything about God. It doesn’t say that all priests are bad, either. But the priests who were bad spoilt all the rest for me. I left the church about 6 months later.

      My research hasn’t changed this at all…

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 11 Nov 2012:

      I go to church very rarely, but then I enjoy it. I do not believe God created the world in 7 days 6000 years ago. No, my research did not have any effect on my religious views. I would always trust scientific evidence more than something that is founded on believe.

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      What an interesting question! My grand parents were religious and I used to go to church when I was (much) younger with my Brownie pack but as I got older I did begin to question the existence of God because I couldn’t see him/her/it. These days I am a firm non-believer because I believe in evidence, so unless someone can prove to me with hard physical evidence that there is a God of some sort, I can’t believe it. In the same way, I won’t believe in aliens until someone shows some hard proof!

      I can’t say that my research has had any effect on my belief although perhaps my non-belief is stronger because I’m a scientist and as a scientist, I’m always looking for evidence.

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