• Question: Are you religious? If not, why not?

    Asked by nataliel to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 11 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Amy Tyndall

      Amy Tyndall answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I have been a Christian all my life – as I mentioned in a previous post, it makes the most sense to me for my faith and science background to work together. But most people I work with are in fact not religious, although this has never stopped any of us from getting along 🙂 If anything, it leads to more interesting discussions, and allows us to see things from different perspectives – a very important skill in science! 😉

    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I’m not in any way religious, and never have been. Neither are my parents, so I think not being brought up in a family with religious connections is the main reason.

      Now that I’m a grown up I don’t feel the need to believe in any particular God or Gods (though the history of religions and that there are so many that all claim to be “right” is fascinating!). So for me it’s not a question of why not, but why?

      g

    • Photo: Martin Archer

      Martin Archer answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I’m not religious. I went to church when I was much younger but at some point I just decided I didn’t need it in my life any more. I’m ok without having to believe there’s something more, in fact I think the Universe as it is is pretty damn awesome!

    • Photo: Usman Kayani

      Usman Kayani answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I am religious and follow the Islamic faith, for me its hard not see the deep beauty that’s contained within the universe written in the elegant language of Mathematics. It just makes sense to me that there is a higher power beyond this universe, beyond time and space and anything of its creation. For me, science and religion exist harmoniously together.

      Everyone is definitely entitled to their own opinions though, most people I work with are either from different faiths or are not religious and either way we all get along.

    • Photo: Shawn Domagal-Goldman

      Shawn Domagal-Goldman answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I’m not religious myself – not in the practicing sense – but believe that religion can be an important part of people’s lives. I also think the questions religion is best suited to answer are the ones science is completely incapable of addressing. What happens after you die? Is there a God? Are there many gods? These are questions are not ones we can address with the scientific method, but they’re ones religious scholars and leaders have been addressing for millennia.

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