Robert Sapolsky: Religion Is Nature’s Antidepressant

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Of all the strange things that humans have come up with, almost none is stranger—nor more pervasive across separate cultures—than religion. Why this meta-magical thinking evolved is easy to understand in hindsight: Robert Sapolsky calls it a “wonderful mechanism” that our ancestors used to cope with forces of nature, tragedies, and good luck that they couldn’t explain. And even in the presence of explanations today, it continues to be useful for the majority of humans, to the point that asking “Why do so many people still believe?” is not the most interesting question in the vicinity. Sapolsky would rather ask: “What’s up with the five percent of atheists who don’t?” The only thing crazier than religion might be atheism, he suggests. There’s a solid catalog of literature that shows the health benefits of religiosity. It’s nature’s antidepressant for what is often a brutal and awful world, and offers a protective quality that atheists forfeit—which explains why incidences of depression are much higher in that group. To Sapolsky, what’s more curious than the bizarre need to believe, is the choice not to.

[Video and text source: Big Think YouTube channel]