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

Date: 2025-08-25
Source: YouTube - Huberman Lab Podcast
Guest: Dr. David DeSteno, Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University
Host: Andrew Huberman

Key Insights & Powerful Quotes​

The Compatibility of Science and Religion​

DeSteno's Core Position on God's Existence:

"To me, the question of belief in God... it's not useful because as scientists, we can't prove it. Any scientist who tells you they know for sure God doesn't exist, you shouldn't listen to... With God you can't even run the experiment. You can't manipulate God if God exists."

On the False Dichotomy:

"Most people, the ones on X are fundamentalists who are shouting science is bad or hardcore new atheists who are saying religion is bad. I think most people live in the middle somewhere and most people accept the view that there could be something there and they're not in tension."

Dramatic Health Benefits of Religious Practice​

Epidemiological Evidence:

"Epidemiological data show that people who engage with religion, not just say I believe in God, but actually engage with faith over a 15 to 20 year period, it cuts all told all cause mortality by 30%. Cuts death due to cancer and cardiovascular disease by 25%. Reduces anxiety and depression. Increases people's sense of meaning and feeling that their life is flourishing."

Community vs. Religious Community:

"Being in community, joining clubs, having tighter social networks makes you healthier and happier. But the effect size is larger for religious community, right? They're doing something in those communities."

The Science of Compassion and Meditation​

Meditation's Impact on Compassion:

"In the control condition, people who weren't meditating, about 15% of them got up and said, 'Oh, do you want my chair? Can I help you?' In the meditation condition, it was close to 50% of people who did this... We tripled the rate at which somebody felt compassion for somebody else in pain and was willing to help them."

Prayer as Physiological Practice:

"When people pray, especially if you're reciting formal prayers... what it typically does is it reduces your respiration rate. Not only does it reduce your respiration rate, but it also tends to increase the duration of the exhalations... It increases vagal tone, reduces heart rate. It puts the body in a state where it is not expecting threat or challenge."

The Psychology of Moral Behavior​

The Shocking Cheating Study:

"100% of people when you ask them... 'if you lied about this... is that morally wrong?' Only time in my life I get unanimous data. 100% of people say, 'Yeah, that's morally wrong.'... And so then we put them in the room... Guess what percentage of them lie to us? Depending on the study, it's usually like 85%."

Gratitude's Transformative Power:

"Those who have counted their blessings, cheating is almost non-existent. 85% to zero... the average cheating rate was like 25 or 30%. It went down to 2%."

Rituals as Sophisticated Mind-Body Practices​

The Symphony Metaphor:

"Rituals are like sophisticated packages of life hacks where a life hack is like playing a single note on a piano. A ritual is like a symphony."

Jewish Mourning Practices - Scientific Backing:

"When someone passes, you cover your mirror. Why would you cover your mirror? Well, there's lots of research in psychology that shows when you look into a mirror, whatever emotion you are feeling becomes intensified... by simply covering mirrors at a time when you were feeling intense sadness and grief, it reduces that."

Motor Synchrony and Connection:

"If we had tapped in unison, people report feeling more connection to this person. They report feeling more compassion for their plight. and by 30% more they're willing to go help that person... That action of synchrony... is a cue to the mind that these two are joined."

Death Anxiety and Religious Belief​

The U-Shaped Curve:

"People who really believe in an afterlife, they have the least anxiety about death because they feel like I'm going someplace good. People who firmly reject any form of afterlife, they're a little more anxious than the believers, but they're less anxious than one other group... The group that is the most anxious about death are the people who don't know."

Contemplating Death as Wisdom:

"If you have people contemplate their death when they're young, temporarily it reorients their values toward the things that truly bring happiness. Suddenly they'll start caring about that stuff... the idea of contemplating death that is a part of almost every religious tradition if you do it for a short period of time and not in a morbid way but daily actually points you toward the things in life that make you more happy."

The Pascal's Wager Update​

Modern Rational Argument:

"Pascal said you should believe in God... what Pascal realized at the time was that you could solve this problem if religion also brought benefits in the here and now too. And what we're seeing is it does exactly that."

Spiritual Technology vs. Traditional Medicine​

The Pharmaceutical Parallel:

"The pharmaceutical companies had technology to make all kinds of drugs, but they didn't know where to look. And so what did they do? They sent people to traditional cultures around the world to find substances... They called it bioprospecting... And so what I argue for is... instead of bioprospecting, I call it religiospecting."

The Burning Man Phenomenon​

Modern Spiritual Experiences:

"What astounded me is where people are having profound spiritual experiences is at Burning Man... She went to Burning Man... What she showed is that there's a segment of people there that report having profound spiritual experiences... people are in this environment where their normal life, their normal clothes, their normal identity is stripped away."

Addiction and Higher Power​

The 12-Step Insight:

"For the people who surrender to God, what it means is I'm going to try and do the best I can, make the best decision I can, live the best way I can, but I realize that I can't control everything, including my own behavior all the time. So, I'm going to do the best I can and then I'm just going to give it over and hope that God trust that God will help me."

Intelligence and Religious Belief​

Debunking Stereotypes:

"How religious you are does not correlate with intelligence. Right? There are really brilliant people who embrace the idea that there is a god and there is a creator and there are some that aren't... when they look at the data there's nothing to refute it."

The Future of Religion​

New Religions Emerging:

"Every year there's between 100 and 200 new religions that form... most of them, the reason you don't hear about them is because they're flashes in the pan... For religion to stick, there's two ways. one is somebody in power... but in the modern world... it tends to be the case when they speak to some need."

Most Powerful Takeaway​

DeSteno's Practical Wisdom:

"We will do and then we will understand... sometimes it's in the doing of the practice that the understanding comes later of why it's important or how it can help you. If you have to work out all the logic first, it can be an impediment. And so try."

This conversation represents a groundbreaking scientific approach to understanding religion - not as dogma to accept or reject, but as time-tested technologies for human flourishing that deserve rigorous study and respectful consideration.