• Question: Do you believe in some sort of God?

    Asked by to Divya, Clare, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Clare Nevin

      Clare Nevin answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      There is a historical and ongoing debate about whether religion and science are mutually exclusive (believing in one, not both). I work with some religious people who don’t think this is the case – they agree with scientific evidence for evolution over creationism, but they do believe there is a god.

      I was brought up Catholic but quickly decided I did not believe in god through my life experiences, and also scientific education. In my opinion, we are responsible for our own actions and decisions in life, and we should behave considerately to each other because that is human nature, and not for fear of a judgement day.

      Also there is a neurological and evolutionary basis behind the experiences we know as spirituality or religiousness. Our brains evolved to believe that something may exist outside of our comprehension. So we created these different religions in society and the idea of a ‘god’ as a way of explaining those things that humans felt at the time, but now we can explain it with science.

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      No, I don’t. I think that there are other explanations. I don’t know all the answers myself, but I think that scientists will work it out.

      Many people say that how can we see wonder in the world if we don’t believe in God. I say the opposite – the fact that all of this happened by chance is amazing and mind-blowing and that should make us even more keen to look after it.

    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      No – not in the way people usually mean – an all-knowing being based on humans but vastly more powerful etc. I think those are things we made up.

      If I may add something:
      ‘Wisdom of the ancients’ etc. may have something of value but we can’t forget that our lives and societies were terribly different thousands of years ago and things would usually not apply now so shouldn’t be blindly followed just because someone or some book said so.

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      No, I can’t rule one out but I don’t think there’s any evidence one exists and nothing we’ve seen in this world that needs one. If someone showed me proper, real evidence I might change my mind but I doubt that will ever happen.

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