Hello

[LivingNumbers6.626]

Hello Quantum

On faith and science, I get the impression that is a lot easier in Europe than the US. We really don't have much of what you might call a 'fundamentalist' movement here, believing in, for example, a young Earth created in six days. The predominant Christian culture here, since the Enlightenment in the 18th century, has always allowed science to inform faith and to shape how we read the bible. Indeed, if you look at the history of science you'll find that many of the pioneers of what we might call 'modern science' were men of faith, motivated by their faith to understand 'creation' better. I'm not saying I agree wi everything there, but if you look at the biologos website you'll see a continuation of that tradition.

On 'Big Pharma', I can say the vast majority of people in R&D are motivated by wanting to discover new medicines that will do something to help alleviate human suffering. Lots will also be motivated by the simple pleasure of pursuit of knowledge. In my 20 years I don't think I met a single person who didn't have a genuine interest in improving healthcare and/or knowledge of healthcare. I'm sure the must be a few bad people, but I'm equally sure that they are rare. But I can't comment on the sales side of things - I don't know it at all well enough, but the impression we get is that that is where there are some genuine causes of concern, and it seems to me that the executive leads of the companies are either ignorant of, or complicit in, what goes on, both of which are unacceptable. Some house cleaning seems in order. It's interesting though now seeing things from the side of the healthcare providers, and from a university perspective - mistrust in Big Pharma is certainly commonplace.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! I look forward to seeing your future input on the forum and I might send you a PM in the future to talk more about your response.

Welcome to the forum!