Religion as Science Experiment

It's Christmas, and I've been thinking about things I don't normally dwell on. I'll be back to the usual programming next week.

Every time I fly, somewhere between the seatbelt sign and takeoff, I close my eyes and pray for a safe landing.

I’m a nervous flyer. I’m also a scientist, someone who believes in evidence and proof. The tensions between science and religion have always been hard for me to ignore. The obvious one being evolutionary theory, but more generally just the whole concept of faith in things you can’t prove. I don’t consider myself an atheist, but calling myself religious would be a lie. And yet here I am, praying.

I don't know if the prayers help. But I'm still here, so the track record is good. It's probably just statistics. Flying is the safest way to travel. But for my own peace of mind, I'm claiming a positive correlation.

The universe can be explained perfectly well without a higher power. And yet, on a personal level, I can’t shake the feeling there might be something worth exploring.

Recently I came across a guest essay by Nir Eyal in Derek Thompson’s Substack which resonated with me.

Nir writes about the scientific evidence for belief. In the 1950s, a biologist named Curt Richter put rats in buckets of water to see how long they’d swim before drowning. Most gave up within 15 minutes. But rats who were rescued just before drowning, comforted, and placed back in the water swam for an average of 60 hours. Same rats, same water. The only difference was hope. Other studies show similar results in humans. Belief, it turns out, has measurable effects on the body and brain, even when it’s not tied to any particular doctrine.

So the science is interesting. But what do you do with it if you’re not religious?

That’s where the second concept comes in. In Singapore, official forms don’t just list “Atheist” or “Agnostic.” There’s another option: “Free Thinker.” In Nir’s framing, Free Thinkers aren’t committed to any single ideology. They could be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or none of the above. What defines them is the approach: test ideas against reason, evidence, and experience. Keep what works. Discard what doesn’t.

That connected something for me. If belief has real effects, and there’s a framework for testing beliefs without blind commitment, then maybe there’s a way to approach this like any other open question.

Religion as a science experiment.

I should be upfront: I don’t have deep personal experience with organised religion. I’m technically Catholic but I don’t remember the last time I went to church. I’m approaching this as an outsider looking in. But from where I stand, I can see a few things that believers seem to get from religion—things that look genuinely valuable.

Community. We are perhaps the most connected generation in history and also the loneliest. I notice that religious communities actually show up. Week after week, same place, same people. Churches, synagogues, temples, mosques—they’ve been anchors of community for a long time. There’s something about that consistency, that physical presence, that seems increasingly rare. People build real relationships there. They support each other through difficult times. It’s social connection with a shared sense of purpose underneath it. I wouldn't be surprised if more young people start gravitating towards this. Not necessarily religion itself, but something that offers that sense of shared purpose.

Rituals. Muslims pray five times a day. Same verses, same movements, same rhythm, every single day. I don’t want to trivialise it, but there’s something almost meditative about that kind of structure. A reset button built into the day. My plane prayer is a very crude version of this, but I think it’s the same impulse—a small act that creates a moment of stillness, a brief pause from the noise. There’s real science behind why rituals work. I find it interesting that religion figured this out long before we had studies to prove it.

Morality and Manners. I’ve long been curious about the connection between religion and moral values. Would morality have emerged without religion? Would evolution alone have taught us how to live a good life? I’m not ready to give a verdict on that. I want to dig into the research more. But what I do notice is that religious institutions seem to create contexts where people bring out a certain version of themselves. You dress up for church. You speak differently in a house of worship. You treat people with a kind of formal respect that feels rare elsewhere. Whether religion invented that or just provides the scaffolding for it, I’m not sure. But the scaffolding seems to matter.

So here’s where I’ve landed.

I'm not converting. I'm not even sure I'll end up believing in anything. I've always respected religion and seen its value for others. I just never explored it for myself. Maybe it's time I did.

In 2026, I want to treat religion like a science experiment. Try things. See what works. If it doesn’t, go back to the drawing board.

What does that actually look like? I’m still figuring it out, but I’m thinking:

Explore different traditions properly. Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and my own abandoned Christian faith. Not just read about them, but actually show up. Attend services. Talk to people. Try to understand not just what they believe, but how they practice, how they build community, how they see the world. I’m curious what I’ll find in common across them, and where they diverge.

I don’t know what I’m hoping to find exactly. Maybe a bit more stillness. Maybe a sense of something larger than myself. Maybe just the discipline of showing up for something that isn’t about productivity or output.

And if nothing comes of it? That’s fine. That’s how experiments work.

I'll report back. Assuming I land safely.