OUR MOTIVATION

Is religion a barrier towards the development of synthetic biology therapies? Do religious people believe in extending the human lifespan? Is it the right thing to do in society? These are just some of the questions we are trying to better understand through talking to religious leaders and the public. We understand that over 84% of the world population have a faith, therefore is this 84% of the world population against synthetic biology healthy ageing therapies?

We wanted to explore religion and the synthetic biology community as this is something that has not been explored with enough care and tact and we wanted to shine some light on the issues, questions and opportunities this poses. Religion, in the scientific community, is often seen as a barrier to innovation. This has been a point of discussion between many creationists and scientists but we wanted to explore the interactions the two have and if they can coexist without problems and even stimulate each other positively. We wanted to do this with open two-way discussions between religious leaders and ourselves, to try and see what opinions and ideas they have and what they represent in their community.

We hoped that these interactions would allow us to show them what we are doing and what benefits this can have on their community. We are firm believers that asking “why”, listening carefully whilst trying to understand and respect different views and beliefs helps us widen our horizons. Simultaneously we wanted to try to bring our ideas and solutions to their attention and hopefully bridge this gap between synthetic biology and religion. This was a vital part of our project as many within the elderly community are religious and thus share many of the beliefs that we explored.

Hindu Perspective: Jay Lakhani

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Christian perspective:

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Sikh perspecitve

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Outcome: what did we learn?

From the talks we had these past months with various religious leaders we were able to take away many experiences and impressions that have not only shaped our personal views but also the direction this project has been taken in. The most surprising part of these talks really were that in terms of our project right now, religion does not pose as much of a barrier as we had initially thought. We found that many people from religious communities embrace synthetic biology and a few are even actively involved and shaping the future of our practice. Overall this experience, with such an array of religious beliefs, has been very enlightening to all team members involved. Although this has been very beneficial a many more religions and belief systems need to be explored in the future.