• Question: Are any of you religious and if so what are your beliefs?

    Asked by hannahralston to Joel, Kristian, Tim, Venus, Zachary on 8 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by dominicaanasthasia.
    • Photo: Kristian Harder

      Kristian Harder answered on 8 Nov 2013:

      Haha, dangerous question! 🙂
      I personally are a very annoyed atheist. Annoyed, because I keep having to fend off attempts of religious organizations to interfere with my life (such as the church running our local school and trying to damage our children by letting a priest brainwash them on a weekly basis), because many wars have been fought and millions of people have already been murdered in the name of religion, and nobody seems to be able to stop it. But above all, because I am a scientist whose job it is to figure out how the universe works. And in thousands of years of painstaking work, scientists have figured out a lot of it. And this work is all based on reason, on evidence, observation, facts and so on. Our lives have been transformed. People are healthier, happier, wealthier, have more opportunities, more liberties, higher standards of moral because of all the knowledge we gained and the technology we developed. And then someone comes, claiming that certain iron age superstitions that were basically nothing but very first (and, in retrospect, quite futile) attempts to understand nature, should still be taken seriously? No, thank you. Religion requires deliberately refusing to know, deliberately refusing to demand evidence for outlandish claims, and I don’t see how this can be acceptable, and especially not for a scientist!

      Of course all that is my personal view, and I know that others will disagree. And religion (or lack thereof) is not everything. I, too, have religious friends, and plan to remain friends with them. 🙂

    • Photo: Venus Keus

      Venus Keus answered on 10 Nov 2013:

      I’m a scientist and I don’t think science has anything to do with religion.

    • Photo: Zachary Williamson

      Zachary Williamson answered on 10 Nov 2013:

      I’m not religious, but I still have beliefs! A belief in the fundamental goodness of humanity, and the importance of being kind to people and never judging them just because they’re different or strange.

    • Photo: Tim Hollowood

      Tim Hollowood answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      I’m not religious and I think that being religious is closing your mind and a way of avoiding the deep questions. I don’t believe that goodness and humanity and spirituality are the sole preserve of religion. In fact I think that religion has as much to do with those as it does with violence, hatred and bigotry.

    • Photo: Joel Goldstein

      Joel Goldstein answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Yes, I am Jewish and regularly attend synagogue, celebrate the festivals and observe many of the customs (in a moderately modern and enlightened manner perhaps….)
      I see no conflict between religion and science, but religions have to adapt to advances in scientific knowledge (just as they have to adapt to changes in people’s moral and ethical outlook).

Comments

  • Photo: infintaneousdeath

    infintaneousdeath commented on :

    I agree with the fact that religion often speaks of events that bend the rules of science, but that doesn’t mean all religions are full of crackpots who pray for the sun to turn upside down. They aren’t from the stone age.

  • Photo: infintaneousdeath

    infintaneousdeath commented on :

    As well as that, don’t turn a blind eye to the great massacres performed in the name of atheism. Stalin wasn’t religious, in fact he was an atheist. Religions today aren’t proud of what has been done in their name, in fact, the opposite is true.

  • Photo: Kristian

    Kristian commented on :

    Stalin didn’t commit massacres in the name of atheism. He committed them because he was a very bad person. He also happened to be an atheist (I guess), but I am not sure this had any influence on him being bad or not. And I agree, the vast majority of religious people is not doing bad things in a criminal sense. But I am even worried about people being told to accept very outlandish claims without questioning them. This is asking for trouble.

  • Photo: Kristian

    Kristian commented on :

    By the way, I am not sure it would be a good idea to discuss this further here. I welcomed the question, and tried to give reasons for my answer rather than just say “no”. But any discussion about this topic usually just ends up with everyone having exactly the same opinion as before, but feeling offended or misunderstood or otherwise not treated right. 🙂 This event is supposed to be a positive experience for everyone involved, after all!