Dr. David DeSteno

What I'm interested in is the data that we'll talk about that shows engaging with religion makes life better for people.

And why is that?

Well, you know, you're hitting on the point there.

This is why I say it's not a useful scientific question, because when you can...

raise a finding, say evolution, which we know is true, and then say, oh, well, maybe that's the way God works.

If you keep creating a carve-out to explain something,

it becomes very difficult to make a strong case, right?

I mean, scientists live by falsifiability.

Can we falsify something?

But if you say, oh yeah, okay, that falsified, but there's a reason why that falsified because God did a different way.

It becomes just, as you say, an endless debate.

So when I was an undergraduate in college, I was always interested in the questions of, you know, what does it mean to be a good person?

How do you flourish?

How do you find happiness?

And I was trying to decide between being a history of religions major

and a psychologist.

I ultimately decided to be a psychologist because I could get data and not just argue about the things that you're saying.

But what I've realized over time is that the things that we're finding that make life better for people

These traditions, they couldn't run randomized control trials, but they had intuited long ago.

And so for me, what I tell people is, yeah, religion is about belief, but it's also about what you do.