How God Works: Engaging in Religio-Prospecting To Find Practices That Enhance Human Flourishing

Goal

The goal of this project is to identify, evaluate, and increase availability of techniques to foster human wellbeing at all stages along the path of life. Across the globe, it's questions like these that keep people up at night: How do you raise a child to be a good person? What are your responsibilities to your family, your friends, and your larger community? How do you cope with a serious illness? Can you find someone to love and, if you do, how do you go on when they're gone? How do you find joy and meaning in life – especially in difficult times – and how do you make sense of your own life's inevitable end? For centuries, religions have offered tools -- rituals and practices -- that help people find answers to questions like these by nudging their minds and bodies in adaptive ways -- ways that science is now re-discovering. We now know that mindfulness, for example, enhances compassion and reduces stress, just as it was originally created to do. What's the next mindfulness? What other rituals practices can foster wellbeing? The goal of this project is to find out through a rigorous interdisciplinary investigation.

Opportunity

For decades, pharmaceutical companies have engaged in bio-prospecting. They scour the globe for traditional medicines. Many remedies don't have any true benefit. But some do. Such bio-prospecting has led to the development of drugs that have improved lives for thousands of people. The majority of social scientists reject religion as an illusion or worse. But if we remove theology from the picture and focus on rituals and practices, we can use the scientific method to study how they affect the body and mind. Religio-prospecting offers a new route to develop and evaluate interventions that hold potential to benefit human flourishing.

Roadblocks

There have been several roadblocks. The first is the unfortunate hostility that currently characterizes much of the science vs. religion debate. Many young scientists interested in studying human wellbeing shy away from anything having to do with religion for fear that they'll be stigmatized. One way to combat this is by having established scientists publicly open the conversation and/or pair with younger scientists. A second roadblock has been that study of the benefits of religion has been rather sociological in nature, focusing on group level processes. Greater study of how rituals and practices affect individual minds and bodies is necessary.

Breakthroughs Needed

Breakthroughs will come from interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration. By interdisciplinary, I especially mean collaboration between religious scholars and leaders (i.e., those who bothy study religion AND those who are involved in pastoral activities) and social scientists. I would recommend a two-pronged approach. Fund high-profile conversations that bring together religious thinkers/leaders and scientists for discussions (both for the purposes of information dissemination to the public and norm breaking of the view in the sciences that religion is to be avoided). In essence, to counter the current view led by the New Atheists. Second, and more important, funding is needed for both seed and advanced projects that require pairings of social scientists with religious leaders to investigate how religious practices and rituals can benefit human flourishing. This will be essential for studying the effects in true populations and contexts.

Key Indicators of Success

Three years: substantial interest assessed via response to RFP and engagement with public-facing events
Five years: initial publication of findings from funded work and continued engagement from the academic community and the public (e.g., placement of findings in highly respected media outlets, website traffic, etc.).
Ten years: strength of publication record for funded projects, increased conversations and projects combining religion and science taking place both in the public venue and in potential funding announcements by federal agencies.

Additional Information

In case it might be helpful, here's a link to a series of interviews (from the PopTech conference) I did with thinkers on this topic: Sigal Samuel (a religion journalist), Rabbi Geoff Mitelman (who runs an organization meant to foster discussions between scientists and religious thinkers), Sharon Salzberg (one of the US's most recognized mindfulness teachers), and Ari Wallach (a futurist): www.howgodworks.org
Other work I've done on the topic (including publications) can be found here: www.davedesteno.com
The videos here (especially the intro video) provides a quick intro to the transformative idea I'm suggesting.
Possible collaborators (I have not approached these people but strongly believe they would be good fits and interested): Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, Joseph Henrich (Harvard Evolutionary Biologist/Anthropologist), James Martin (Jesuit Priest), Thupten Jinpa (leading Buddhist voice interleaving with psychological science), Paul Bloom (cognitive psychologist), Francis Collins (NIH director and founder of BioLogos Foundation)