All science flows from a religious worldview, says Orthodox Health Podcast

Episode 86 of the Orthodox Health Podcast features Dr. Zachary Porcu arguing that all science is downstream from a religious view of the world. This does not mean every scientist belongs to a church; it means that before data collection begins, we already hold assumptions about what the world is, what a human being is, what matters, and which questions are worth asking.

Those assumptions eventually shape practical judgments: what counts as healthy or disordered, what should be optimized or accepted, what counts as progress. Even the supposedly secular person lives inside a story, performs rituals, and organizes life around a vision of the ultimate good. The ethical vegan, the CrossFitter, the political activist, and the person who identifies as spiritual but not religious each embody different rituals, different stories, and different visions of the human person.

As Dr. Porcu puts it, "Everyone has a religion, everyone has rituals, everyone inhabits a story." The question is not whether you have one, but whether you know which story you are living inside. The accompanying video summary adds that modern Westerners are all religious zealots, whether Protestant evangelical, Catholic missionary, LGBT activist, or socialist reformer.

Each position centers on a conception of the human being that defines health. Daily practices from ethical veganism to CrossFit are rituals that embody that identity. The distinction between religious and secular is described as false; everyone inhabits a story and performs ritual actions.