#45: Bio of Religion, Anxiety/Fear, Insulin Resistance | Robert Sapolsky Father-Offspring Interviews

[@the-mimimi]

OMG! Dr Sapolsky is amazing. Please please keep these episodes coming! I really hope this will grow and more people will hear his message and also learn all these things!! Thank you for making these things!

[@BradC44]

"care and feeding instructions of the boogie man." I love this channel! Thanks again Doc and Rachel for posting every week.

[@jamesbishop9156]

10:02 Religions invented the fear in the first place...Love this! 🎯👍😁❤️

[@pansepot1490]

‘Knock knock. "Who's there?". Jesus Christ, I've come here to save you. "Save me from what?". From whatever I'm gonna to do you if you don't let me in.’

[@jamesbishop9156]

@pansepot1490 🤣😂👍😁 That reminds me of a quote from Yahweh; The price for love is betrayal....pay up....

[@youtubecreatoro]

Thank you so much Dr. Sapolsky. You are truly a gift to humanity.

[@PhillipBell]

Best episode yet! Religiousity factors explained at a high level in 20 minutes. Diabetes type 1 and 2 factors explained a high level, with extenuating factors of anxiety explained in about 8 minutes.

[@Jackocv3]

I am a first year PhD student and my lab studies the amygdala, so my eyes lit up at the title. Thank you for the years of inspiration, Dr. Sapolsky.

[@mr1001nights]

Whether in religion or human culture generally, the avoidance of death (& the human insignificance/finitude it represents) is a stronger & broader motivator than the avoidance of uncertainty: 1) Death threatens to undermine *all* human desires, whether for certainty, pleasure, belonging, meaning, control, competence, self-actualization, or growth; 2) Most biological systems function to keep the organism alive, thus averting death; 3) Death must be avoided to enhance opportunities for reproduction and care of offspring, both essential for gene perpetuation; 4) Death is the only absolutely inevitable future event; 5) The *certainty* of death does nothing to make it less scary, but the more *uncertain* possibility of an afterlife in religion *does* (although of course a less uncertain possibility of an afterlife does help with anxiety as well); 6) Terror Management Theory experiments have shown that reminders of death produce stronger effects on religious beliefs and worldview defense compared to other anxiety-provoking topics, including uncertainty.

[@jimwilliams3816]

Excellent points. Based on my own inner experience, I have the impression that there are rare/subtle exceptions to 1 and 5, though I do not understand them (I’d like to). I’ve never wanted to live forever, or even as long as possible, and I really, truly do not want there to be an afterlife (or reincarnation). Elements of fight of flight, depression/dysphoria, anhedonia and especially a noisy mind have all contributed to this. But treatment has mostly settled those elements, and the lack of desire to live indefinitely remains. I wouldn’t consider this an outright absence of fear of death; if I was diagnosed with late stage cancer tomorrow, I think it would stick hit me pretty hard. But my outlook appears to be pretty atypical compared to most. Is it a spandrel that persists even though the arches on either side have faded? Is it a gene that’s turned off in me? Or am I simply at the far edge of a normal spectrum of experience, with the techies who obsess over wanting to live forever at the other extreme? I don’t know. What I do know is that when I read about the extent to which most people are driven by fear of death, it doesn’t make emotional sense to me, in the same way that believing that the world was created by an all powerful, sentient individual doesn’t.

[@wearedonenow]

All your videos are brilliant, but this is the best ever. I am atheistically grateful.

[@NihilisticRealism]

Excited to get to this one. the human tendency to religiosity fascinates me

[@justinko]

This is the top episode on this channel.

[@a.bodhichenevey1601]

Thanks for this outstanding lecture. It is something a lot of people need today. I appreciate the explanation of the differentiation between FEAR's specificity and ANXIETY's non-specific dreading nature. Correlations are never about causation--only a relationship exists! As a neurobiologist in training at 76 years, I love this new learning adventures I experience here. I would consider myself an "realist-atheist" who believes our brains create gods, goddesses, spirits and evil demons. I would have to say these entities DO exist, but only in our brain's predictive narrative, and not in our actual physical reality. My brain's narrative possess no concepts of religious deities, existing for real, in the physical reality, controlling the universe and human behavior.

[@tracy9610]

🤯 Lets make this channel about religiosity all the time from here on out!

[@Hanna_Bakhash]

“Religion takes you from the murkiness of anxiety to the specificity of fear.”

[@zezezep]

Yes

[@ms.communication8464]

Absolutely fascinating discussion of religion and biology!!!!!!

[@cht2162]

Another great lecture!!!!

[@bobdillaber1195]

Just nothing short of a great discussion! So insightful! Thank you so much.

[@PClanner]

Quality content! Long may it continue

[@greatedges]

As always... thank you both!

[@artcheeze]

I love seeing the map of the brain in your descriptions of religiosity... if the prayers and rituals become rote, they're being handled by the cerebellum (last week) so it's like all the instructions about intentionality are there specifically to steer it back to the parts of the brain that handle fear and anxiety.

[@petenicholls5266]

Excellent strategically sensitive observations on religion...thank you!!

[@KeithCooper-Albuquerque]

Thanks again for another great video! I learn so much each episode!

[@jedser]

I really love these😊

[@maricarmen-s8p]

Very interesting as always, but I couldn't stop looking at the curl of hair. Thanks for sharing.

[@keninboulder76]

Makes a lot of sense and people need to know about this research

[@mcd5478]

Fabulous, of course! ❤ thanks for another great episode 🌟

[@jamesbishop9156]

I love your logic. What did you do that you got it right? What did you do that you got it wrong? A very wise way to learn. 👍😁🎯

[@michaelsee6553]

Thank you once again!

[@TylerZimmermanOrganist-uy1em]

Eric Kandel was like my great grand adviser. I liked working in neuroscience, and music, the intersection of which happens at BRAMS in Canada. There should be an equivalent in the United States

[@mozartsbumbumsrus7750]

Good luck with that! I've been a serious high art classical musician polymath autodidact hyperphantasiac for all my 80 years.

[@decklanquow9709]

This was an incredible episode.

[@carmenmccauley585]

Fabulous! Thank you.

[@ckatt352]

Wow , I've never heard about this part of the brain regarding anxiety and 😮 So this really means that for some people talk therapy, exposure etc don't work ,and maybe that's why more body based approaches like somatic experience can help . I'm very intrigued! this knowledge could change how we view,and how we treat anxiety . Have you talked about this before? I've heard many of your Stanford lectures and podcasts ,but can't say I remember hearing about this . If not it would be super beneficial if you could speak more about this ❤❤

[@jimwilliams3816]

It’s one of the suspicions I’ve had with regard to aspects of trauma theory, specifically looking for the bad thing. If it is possible to “walk down” the fear in the way that Sapolsky describes, like gradually realizing that a dark alley is not a solid predictor of assault, then trying to dig down in search of the trigger, with the assumption that something objectively terrible lies at the root, runs the risk of strengthening an association, or even creating one in the way that religion sometimes does. And yes, it certainly helps illustrate to me why exposure therapy, or at least the concept behind it, has potential pitfalls. I developed debilitating social anxiety over decades via association, but the tricky part was that it developed due to my neurodivergent difficulty with social skills. It started as I became aware of pretty substantial social blunders, and gradually spread as I began to anticipate them more and more. I’ve been encouraged by therapists to put myself out there, because people need social interaction and with the assumption that exposure would help me see that I could do it better than I thought. But that would involve both having success and in recognizing it. The dysphoric perceptions that developed over time make this hard to achieve, but the biggest stumbling block is that the problems are not all imagined. This is a common complaint of autistic people with both CBT and exposure therapy: it’s often assumed that the problems are only perceived and not real. Regarding a real problem as one of perception, and one that’s under an individual’s control, is counter productive. An older example would be trying to help women who are physically abused by their husbands how to fix the problem by modifying their own behavior. Misidentifying the problem to be solved is a good way to foster learned helplessness. Which is why I would assume no therapist would try to address an assault victim’s fear of dark alleys by sending them into one repeatedly at 2am. The dark alley may not be causitive, but the correlation with assault is not necessarily all perceptual. As Sapolsky and everyone else who’s written a book on stress and anxiety points out, the amygdala has a real purpose. The hard part is only using it when it’s really needed.

[@ckatt352]

@jimwilliams3816 great insights, thanks for sharing. I've had some challenges myself and have yet to find therapy that has helped me. There is still much more to be learned about mental health and treatments.

[@BB-cf9gx]

Superb.

[@BillLorenz]

Would love to hear Roberts take on deconversion

[@joegithler]

Beelzebub's Kibble is my new punk band 🤘

[@tomasurbanec6899]

I just had an anxiety from this episode, but still a good one :D

[@purplebenisimo]

Follow up on the excellent Q2 response … how do GLP1 agonist injections help reduce the blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes? Do they override the insulin resistance signals and force more sugar into the already full cells? How would that then lead to the weight loss experienced by so many? Thanks!

[@jimwilliams3816]

Interesting. The Human Behavioral Biology lecture that touched on religion as an antidepressant is of course the one you didn’t film, owing to the concerns you articulated here, so I’ve never heard it. In guessing at the content, I had considered that the idea that there is someone incredibly powerful who cares about you personally would be a major factor. I had always supposed that this would have been why religion was psychologically helpful to slaves, whose lives were not their own to control, but rather dictated by other humans who were uncaring and often cruel. The sense that someone with far greater power did care would be very helpful at coping with such an unfair and stressful situation. A sense of having support. Awe was interesting. I have had the sense that awe is felt by many of the people who I think of as experiencing faith in a healthy way. My own orientation, which is nontheistic, draws comfort from the complexity of the natural world and the immensity of the universe, but I thought my appreciation of personal insignificance ran contrary to religiousity, because belief in a supreme being that knows you personally, especially one that creates you in (his) image struck me as self aggrandizing. I recognize that this is a particular subset of religious practitioners, in particular those who obtain hierarchical status through institutions, but the other aspect that I was aware of were people who feel safety in the idea of protection from a supreme authority, and this still doesn’t strike me as drawing comfort from being a tiny piece of creation. Perhaps. Awe and gratitude, perhaps coupled with a comforting sense of insignificance, feels most compatible with what I think of as a spiritual version of religiousity, with the gratitude maybe being drawn from a sense that the universe is amazing (which I do feel), and that you are part of it, if small I am poor at feeling connected, and that may be why I am better at awe than gratitude. Part of that is having drawn a somewhat short straw neurologically, but I have the idea that feelings of gratitude don’t work that well if they are contingent on everything going okay; rather they are a mindset that helps an individual feel better about their circumstances even when they are somewhat lacking. The “glass half full” outlook, as it were. Some thoughts.

[@jamesbishop9156]

Well said. 👍😁

[@toddetter2207]

"I can swear there ain't no heaven But I pray there ain't no hell."

[@Zuumville]

Laura Nyro was only 17 when she wrote “An When I Die”. When the song came out in the fall of 1969, I was working full time at the post office, my first job after graduation from high school in Wisconsin.

[@toddetter2207]

@Zuumville I was 12 in 1969 listening to Blood Sweat and Tears having escaped the indoctrination of a religious upbringing. But being in the public education system, teachers and school mates pressured me to go to church. It was a private club of 12 year olds that could quote scriptures like it was powerful secret knowledge. It did pressure me into attending Sunday school for a brief period until I concluded it was just manipulation. Then I married an evangelical and the pressuring to join a religious social circle started over. I'm happy to say after 67 years I escaped the feeling of obligation to join what amounts to an "us vs them" social club where everyone is told what to think. Our generation and specifically our music promoted critical thinking. Thank God for the music. 😎

[@jamesbishop9156]

Music is our Creatress's original language. 👍😁🎯❤️🌷

[@batchint]

I find the outcome of habit is a game which children play… playing your ‘it’… and chase for life…

[@rahulvyasplo]

I have a hard time focus on this! How could I given this super-cute dog in side!

[@jamesbishop9156]

Fear limits understanding...

[@luisladino6162]

I love it

[@julianvanostrand3275]

Why is it so much easier to brush my Labrador's teeth than it might be to convince a shark to permit some species of fish to clean its gills? I'm not from anywhere interesting just Skokie Illinois but I'm a long term Sapolsky fan. Found your Stanford lecture series ages ago and have since read nearly all your books and a experimental Psych undergrad stuck in the boring world of personal finance but the scientist in me lives on in part thanks to you et al. Thanks for your consideration.

[@Zuumville]

The easiest way to explain religion to a child is to say that people believe what they want to believe. If religion didn’t make a person feel good or reduce his anxiety, he wouldn’t believe it. So any mental condition that affects a person’s level of anxiety or his ability to feel good can affect his religiosity. The truest beliefs tend to be those with the least amount of emotions attached to them. Fiber reduces glucose spikes by slowing down food absorbsion and also promotes better gut bacteria health than probiotic supplements (so don’t waste money on probiotics, especially obscenely overpriced ones like Athletic Greens).

[@sven-erikviira1872]

Quote by Matt Dillahunty - Religion convinces you that you are poisoned and then offers you the homeopathic remedy.

[@OmniversalInsect]

"The shrewdest fraudsters don't sell us fake medicine for real aches and pains. When our ailments persist, the game's up. The shrewdest fraudsters sell us fake illnesses and imaginary defects. Then the game can endure for a lifetime." TheraminTrees.

[@bmohan55]

@OmniversalInsect Isn't that how we got our next President????

[@briseboy]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishabel from magic" AC Clarke --- It APPEARS that fire, large aggressive animals, microorganisms, the evolved obligate sociality that allowed humans to defeat or control these and other encounters, were ALL so advanced that the overly sheltered (that is, inculcated in schizophrenic delusion as "answer") STILL misattribute intention or worse, deity, to any unanticipated event.

[@Oldskoolwraastlin77]

👏 👏 👏

[@hansbergstrom6877]

Thankyou¨

[@audreyburch6029]

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Spellbound

[@audreyburch6029]

From the cradle bars Comes a beckoning voice It sends you spinning You have no choice You hear laughter Cracking through the walls It sends you spinning You have no choice You hear laughter Cracking through the walls It sends you spinning You have no choice Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Spellbound Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound, oh, oh, oh Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound And don't forget when your elders forget To say their prayers Take them by the legs And throw them down the stairs When you think your toys Have gone berserk And it's an illusion You cannot shirk You hear laughter Cracking through the walls It sends you spinning You have no choice Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Spellbound Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound, oh, oh, oh Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound Spellbound Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Following the footsteps Of a rag doll dance We are entranced Entranced Entranced Tranced, tranced, tranced © 1981 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

[@jamesbishop9156]

​@@audreyburch6029Beautiful! 👍😁❤️

[@andrea-dawn]

In other words, religion is idiocy. 👌

[@theAmygdalaiLama]

Oh, that soundbite about the boogeyman is too good, I hope it doesn't go viral on you. ;) Well done, TY

[@bradsillasen1972]

Are you growing a payot? That would be some stylin' bling! :D

[@curiousreporter4292]

Good morning sir Sapolsky

[@NancyLebovitz]

I thought insulin resistance was located in the muscles. If so, why would filled fat cells affect how muscle cells don't respond adequately to glucose?

[@pillow4casestudies]

every cell has insulin receptors. every cell can become insulin resistant. even brain = alzheimer

[@carmenmccauley585]

U disappeared. Glad you're back. I personally feel deep gratitude. I am an atheist. I replaced god with dog. Works for me!

[@shuai83]

Religion’s trick of replacing ambiguous anxieties with specific boogeymen reminds me of the drill sergeant from the movie Major Payne offering to take the kids mind off some vague pain by threatening to break the kids little finger! The threat alone cured that kid’s pain immediately 😂

[@reyneva]

[@MahmoodKm2202]

Hi dear Sapolskys, love the interviews, i just have a small technical suggestion. Could you pls keep the camera closer to professor because there is a lot of empty headspace over his head and a lot to the side. The image also looks much more flattened because of a single light source i guess, it would be cool if there is a key light and a fill light that will create a distinctive more 3d projection of our professor, this will enhance the viewing experience by giving it an immersive feel to it. Thank you

[@petrairene]

Ah, and this is the reason why religions tend to get stricter and stricter over time. Getting ever more extreme in the "but you have to do it properly" or your salvation is not guaranteed.

[@ahimsaontheisland5087]

👏👏👏💚🫂

[@SapientCephalopod]

In the begining MAN created God(s).

[@jamesbishop9156]

All conditioning is caused by the environment.

[@jamesbishop9156]

I was just thinking of religions...

[@jamesbishop9156]

I have no religions nor follow any cults or magic crafts. I simply know our Creatress who knows me and follows the golden rule. Love is the Law. 👍😁🎯❤️🌷

[@shesh2265]

lovingly, your 6 comments could have been all written in to one

[@jamesbishop9156]

@shesh2265 😂🤣🤣 I wasn't thinking about all my comments at the same time. 👍😁

[@jimwilliams3816]

@shesh2265 Does it really matter? (I say this as someone who is both prone to writing long comments and multiple comments. I’m self conscious about it, but as sins go, it doesn’t strike me as that big a deal.)

[@jamesbishop9156]

​@@jimwilliams3816Cool, Did you know the origin of the word sin came from archery? Sin means to miss the mark in archery 🎯 It's just a mistake to learn from, no biggie. 👍😁❤️🎯

[@AdamShaiken]

I'm fairly certain that it's all about the beard...

[@jamesbishop9156]

@@AdamShaiken 🤣😂😂🤣🤣😂👍😁

[@pansepot1490]

“religion for breakfast” posted a video 2 days ago on the religious brain. Coincidence or sign from the gods? 😅

[@quill444]

_Nobody can tell me that prayer isn't powerful . . . all my life, I've prayed for the prayers of extremely religious people _*_NOT TO WORK_*_ and the results are overwhelming!_ 😇 - j q t -

[@MrJeremy987]

Replace God with "forces you can't understand", and religion starts to make more sense. Humans adapted to their environments and passed down wisdom even though many rituals likely didn't work the way they thought they did. Today's secular age might have more to do with our modern way of life not benefiting from previous rituals.

[@jeandaugherty830]

WRONG There are hundreds of milions of people who believe in a 'god' and have little or no religeosity That was a HUGE mis assumption on your part

[@quill444]

Dear _Good at Math and Spelling:_ *eighty hundred million is eight billion, the current world population* 🥱 - j q t -

[@quill444]

_"Well, then, so what DO you Believe IN?"_ 🙄 is tantamount to asking, _"Well, so then where DO you get your superstitious and nonsensical ideas from?"_ 🤪 - j q t -

[@seangambogi7901]

Seriously, i would love to know what sect of Judaism Robert identifies with, if any... And how he might explain the Jews' incredible success in the USA and elsewhere

[@jamesbishop9156]

@@seangambogi7901 You're definitely on to something about Jewish people. BTW I'm 1% Jewish according to my DNA.

[@andrea-dawn]

Just asking these questions, reveals your lack of intelligence and education; and no, he is not religious.

[@thepiper5522]

Himb goggie on the couch. 🥰😄🥲🥰