2024-06-24
38 分钟Faith has always been a strong force in human history – but in modern times, it may feel antiquated to have it. Psychology professor and author David DeSteno has conducted research exploring questions about the benefits of faith, and in this episode he shares his findings, and why he believes even in the age of science, we shouldn’t leave spiritual wisdom behind. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts.
TED audio collective.
You'Re listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
When it comes to how to find meaning in life, how to deal with tragedy, grief and loss, how to build community, and honestly, how to be a better human, one of the clearest answers for many people is through religion and faith.
We've never done an episode that's explicitly about that, about religion and spirituality before, and that's because it's hard to figure out how to talk about prayer or religious beliefs in a way that doesn't immediately exclude people or turn a lot of people off.
But I think that we've probably been missing out by not having that conversation, because it's a really important piece of many people's lives.
I know for me personally, faith and belief have been a real comfort in my life, a real help for me.
And I know that that's probably true for many of you, too.
And at the same time, I also have a lot of friends who are very much against organized religion of any kind for very good reasons.
So I think that today's guest psychology professor, David Desteno, is going to do a great job of allowing us to speak to both camps, as well as to everyone in between.
David is the author of the book how God works and the host of the podcast by the same name, and he studies the science behind the benefits of religion and what he has to say about his research and why he got into this.
Well, it might surprise you.
I have no agenda in this.
In fact, if you ask me, what do I believe, I'd say I'm an agnostic.
I don't know.
But what led me to this work is just simply looking at the data that's out there.
From what we know, people who engage with spirituality live longer, healthier and happier lives.
And as someone who studies human well being and human morality, I can't ignore that data.
And so I became very interested in trying to figure out what's going on, because it would be the height of hubris for a scientist to assume that traditions that for millennia have been trying to help people deal with life's challenges didn't have something to offer.
And so I think if we're really going to find ways to make life better for people, then we have to be open to some of the ideas that are there.