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: Pastor Randall

As part of exploring the interaction with religion and synthetic biology, we had a chat with Randall Lee, the lead pastor of C3 Church Bloomsbury, who has a background in economics and Russian studies.

In Randall’s perspective, synthetic biology is an influence on living organisms. It cannot be categorically called good or bad, as it is amoral and it just exists. However, it is our use of it that makes it either good or bad.

A question posed to Randall was if synthetic biology was a sin. According to Randall, sin is based largely on our relationship with God and ourselves. Synthetic biology is a tool, and hence it is our intention and use of it that could be called a sin or not. We were enlightened to learn that synthetic biology is not the only way we play God. Christians believe that we are made in the image of God, and this is reflected in other things such as procreation and planting trees as these involve the bringing life into the world. Randall’s view of synthetic biology is affected by his belief, as his believes stem from his religion and are not in conflict with science. Synthetic biology is a broad field, however it could be intimidating when it hinders the ability of choices and free will. A response to this barrier would be to educate people properly on synthetic biology.

Religion is a lens in which we see the world and translates to our way of life. It becomes our culture. Religion and science go hand in hand. While religion answers the questions of “who” and “why”; science answers the question of “what” and “how”. Synthetic biology could hold a complex good, and the openness could be valuable in religious communities including the Christian community. To Randall, given time and proper education, people would come to see religion and synthetic biology as a two sides of a coin which play pivotal role in humanity.

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.