• Question: hey. I would like to ask if you believe in God or not. if you do, does it affect your work?

    Asked by chichi to Alex, Laura, Lesley, Richard, vediacan on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Prince

      Richard Prince answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi ChiChi,
      I have some personal religious beliefs, but I don’t find them at all incompatible with my science. I had a lecturer at university who was very religious. He told us that he believed in creation. We said “but you lecture to us on evolution?!” He answered that he believed that God created the process of evolution.
      Best wishes
      Richard

    • Photo: Lesley Pearson

      Lesley Pearson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi,

      I personally do not believe in any kind of creator god. However I was religious when I was at university, and did not find that it conflicted with my studies in any way.

    • Photo: Laura Newton

      Laura Newton answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hey chichi,

      There are quite a few religious people working in science and there are many ways to reconcile faith with science. I’m not really religious but I went to a Catholic school and when we did evolution in biology my teacher told us that the way God created the Earth and the animals is the same order that they evolved in (even though they didn’t know about evolution when it was written) so that you can see how both views are interlinked and Genesis can be seen as a representation of evolution.

      Best wishes,
      Laura

    • Photo: Vedia Can

      Vedia Can answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi Chichi!

      I definitely believe in God, and in fact I am a religious person. However, I am also a Scientist, and I believe in professionalism. So, I do not allow my religion to affect my work. In fact I was delivering a lecture on Evolution a couple of months ago. I think that each person will decide on their limits and their personal values, and it is up to the individual to set their own boundaries.

      Best Wishes,

      Vedia

    • Photo: Alex Agyemang

      Alex Agyemang answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hi ChiChi,

      Yes, I believe in God and it does not affect my work. In general as an open-minded scientist, I believe in the possibility of things that cannot necessarily be explained.

      Best wishes,
      Alex

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