Science & Health Benefits of Belief in God & Religion | Dr. David DeSteno

Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. David DeSteno. Dr. David DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and an expert on the science of morality, religion, and the health benefits of belief in God and religion. Many people, perhaps most people actually, view science and religion as mutually exclusive. Today, Dr. DeSteno explains why that view is actually incorrect, and he also shares the data showing that religion and prayer have tremendous mental and physical benefits. We discuss the brain mechanisms that often lead people to embrace faith in God and religion, and we attempt to tackle some of the big questions that often come up around science and religion. For instance, can the existence of God actually be proven? Can it be disproven? If not, how should we think about miracles, the origin of life, and the afterlife? So, small questions like that. We also discuss where the line between rituals and suspicions resides and what distinguishes religions from cults. He also shares that despite the fact that more than 100 new religions surface every year, that was surprising to me, very few are able to last. That was not surprising. He also shares amazing data on when and how people lie for personal gain and the simple practices that convert liars into truth-tellers and that make people more empathic overall. To be clear, Dr. DeSteno is not promoting religion. He's a scientist, and his approach is to study in an unbiased way how belief in God and religious practices can benefit individuals and groups. Thanks to him, it's a remarkable conversation that I also believe is important, especially in this time of rapidly evolving AI technology and social media. I learned a ton speaking with him about science, God, and religion, and I'm certain that you will too. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. David DeSteno. Dr. David DeSteno, welcome.

Thanks for having me, Andrew.

For so many people, the idea of science and religion or science and God are opposite one another and maybe even, um, mutually antagonistic to one another, depending on who you're talking to and how it's framed. Uh, that makes sense, I think, to a lot of people, religious or not, just because on the face of it, science is supposed to be about disproving hypotheses. And religion, in most people's minds, is based on belief and faith in things that are difficult to disprove. Um, not impossible, perhaps, but difficult to disprove. And people go back and forth trying to prove the existence of God, trying to disprove the existence of God. This is going on for, um, many, many thousands of years.