Interview on March 16, 2023 with Lilian, who is studying nursing, outside the Cimmarusti Science Center at Glendale Community College.

Do you consider yourself religious?
Lilian: I do believe in God, but I don’t believe in religion. I’m maybe a little bit religious. I believe that we are created by God, but I don’t believe in attending church or any get-together with any religion. So it’s just that I believe there’s a God.

Why do you believe there’s a God?
Lilian: Because of my mom. She’s a Christian. She goes to church. She’s a firm believer and I’ve seen a few things in my life that I believe God has given when we most need it.

Do you believe in a life after death?
Lilian: I believe in mostly reincarnation, rather than that there’s a heaven or hell. I believe that our soul is recycled. I’ve heard many stories of people having memories of their past selves.

Do you read the Bible?
Lilian: No.

How do you learn about God?
Lilian: I did when I was a child, through church. But I felt like what the Bible says about God… I didn’t like what it said.

If you learned about God at church but don’t like what the Bible says about God, how did you decide to believe what you believe now?
Lilian: That’s a hard one. I was trying different religions and I felt like none of them were for me. So I decided just to believe in God and live my life.

What is it that you don’t like about religions and what the Bible says?
Lilian: I don’t like the way they treat women, mostly. I don’t like how they blame the women most of the time when a relationship fails. I don’t like how they are against other people’s beliefs just because it’s not their beliefs and they get mistreated because of that. I think we should all just respect everyone if they believe in aliens or whatever they believe, we should just look at the person how they are, rather than what they do, or who they believe in.

Do you believe there are sins?
Lilian: No.

Do you believe there is nothing that is objectively wrong?
Lilian: I believe that when someone does something that’s for a reason, it’s not that they like to commit the sin; I believe there’s always something that leads them to commit that sin.

A moment ago you said there are no sins. So is it a sin?
Lilian: No, I don’t think so. They call it a sin, but for me, it’s not a sin. For instance, a lot of people think murder is a sin. But I’ve seen stories where the father or the mother finds their child being sexually abused and they react by murdering the person and I don’t consider it a sin.

Is it a sin if someone sexually abuses a child and then kills the child?
Lilian: I would say yes and no because sometimes there’s a motive for why that person sexually abuses a child. They had a rough life that led to them doing that. But that one’s a little hard.

Do you think abortion, which ends the life of a human being, is fine to do?
Lilian: Yeah, I believe that’s fine to do.

If a biological male dresses like a woman, says he’s a woman, and asks to be referred to with female pronouns, is he a woman?
Lilian: In a sense he is a woman but, like I was being taught in class, when it comes to medical emergencies, they go by what they were born as. So I would just put them in a different category as what they are: trans women. And keep it separate.

Watch short interview with Lilian.