• Question: Do you think it's possible to have a religious scientist? Would their views conflict with their science work?

    Asked by Eric to Elliot, Ellen on 16 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      That is an interesting question!

      I think it is certainly possible to be religious and a scientist. One example is Francis Collins, who was a leader of the team which first sequenced the human genome. He is a very impressive scientist, and also a very devout Christian.

      Personally, I am not religious. I was raised in a religion, but I did find that some of the views of that religion didn’t really match up with some of the facts I was learning in science. So I think sometimes, specific religious beliefs can be in conflict with science. One big example is evolution – there are a lot of religious people who don’t accept that evolution is true, even though the scientific evidence for it is incredibly strong.

    • Photo: Ellen Gill

      Ellen Gill answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      I’m not religious myself, but I know scientists from all sorts of religious backgrounds and I don’t think there’s any reason for it to be incompatible. I remember one woman who said the more she found out about all the incredible and complicated ways the world around her worked the more she believed in God, which I thought was nice.

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