Podcast Summary: "Why Do We God?"

Alive with Steve Burns – Lemonada Media
Guest: Professor Leela Prasad
Air Date: October 15, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

In this highly reflective and candid episode, Steve Burns sits down with Professor Leela Prasad (Brown University scholar of folklore, comparative religion, and ethics) to explore the biggest existential question: Why do we “God”? Instead of discussing traditional conceptions of God, the episode centers on humanity’s universal impulse to reach for something greater—using stories, imagination, rituals, and community to grapple with the inscrutability and vastness of existence. The conversation traverses belief, pluralism, sacredness, religious conflicts, and the fundamental human yearning for connection and meaning.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Human Impulse Toward God and Mystery

• Steve opens by differentiating between “capital G” God (anthropomorphized deity) and “small g” god—the idea, impulse, or story at the heart of spiritual engagement. (01:00)

• Professor Prasad frames religion as a way “to acknowledge the vastness of the universe and our place in that vastness, to make sense of it.”

  “We construct something, we breathe life into it, we tell stories about it, but it's really our attempt, it's the human attempt to comprehend the grandeur and the vastness and the inscrutability of things.” (Leela Prasad, 04:37)

• The act of “God-ing” is, in Prasad’s view, “our best attempt to comprehend mystery and to engage it, to find the language for it,” through ritual, beliefs, and storytelling. (05:56)

2. Stories as the Vehicle for Encounter with the Sacred

• Steve asks why story is the chosen instrument to grapple with mystery, rather than empirical approaches. (06:24)
• Prasad explains humans are inherently narrative beings: “We tell stories. We must. It's an attempt to find meaning, to give a form to this engagement... It's our most imaginative foot forward.” (07:12)
• Even belief in an external God requires imagination: “I don't see religion or godness... to be about doctrine alone. It's about breathing life into mysteries. It's situating ourselves.” (Leela, 08:15)
• The similarities in religious stories emerge because all humans seek to relate to the past, record it, imagine futures, and connect with each other and the environment. (09:13)
• Repetition of personal stories is an attempt to “express something that hasn't been fully articulated,” suggesting ongoing work in meaning-making. (10:27)

3. The Line Between Story and the Sacred

• Steve questions what makes a story religious or sacred, instead of mere art. (11:42)
• Prasad suggests sacredness can arise in anything imbued with meaning, especially when affirmed by community:

  “If it is sacred to you... then what is stopping it from being sacred?... If there's a community ratification around that, then... you're participating in the vivification of that.” (Leela, 14:12)

4. The Power of Place, Ritual, and Community

• Steve recounts witnessing a transformation at the Golden Temple in India, detailing how his skeptical friend became solemn and focused amid the communal spiritual energy. (22:00)

• Prasad describes a similar experience, identifying the essence of sacredness as:

  “…finding the center of gravity and dwelling in it.” (Leela, 23:19)

• Communal experiences (like the Sikh langar meal) deepen sacredness and foster moments of stillness and exchange, accessible even to non-believers or outsiders. (23:39)

5. Is There a Universal “God-Shaped Hole”?

• Burns asks if all people are born with this impulse. Prasad responds affirmatively, noting that creative efforts in art, poetry, and architecture across cultures and epochs speak to the same longing. (25:18)
• Sharing and retelling stories in communities amplifies their transformative power:

  “There's something about the collective that is a different order, emotion... that has the power to effect a transformation.” (Leela, 27:46)

6. Religious Storytelling and Conflict

• Steve expresses his struggle reconciling how religions aiming for love and mercy often result in profound conflict: “How do we get from a helpful story to a holy war?” (27:57)
• Prasad attributes such violence to “a breakdown in storytelling”—when plural stories cannot coexist, division takes hold.
  • She shares a story of Hindus and Muslims attributing a mysterious event (a leopard sighting) to their respective religious shrines—both communities accept differing explanations without conflict. (28:44)

“It was the gesture of accommodating the two stories to sit alongside each other that allows for pluralism...” (Leela, 30:30)

• Steve and Leela reflect on rituals (like the India-Pakistan Wagah border ceremony) that both enact division and gesture towards reconciliation (the handshake). The loss of reconciliatory rituals points toward lost opportunities for peace. (34:33, 36:41)

7. Is Pluralism Possible?

• Steve asks if anywhere religious pluralism truly flourishes. Prasad: “I see moments. I see possibilities... America is one place. India is another... But it's also a question of lost opportunities.” (39:55)
• Real religious pluralism demands a generous, imaginative, and humble orientation, which is often lost in history’s divisive legacies. (40:54)

8. Religion as Both Antidote and Source of Division

• Burns notes that religions with the most similarities often generate the greatest conflict.
• Prasad names it “a fundamental failure of imagination.” She connects this again to a breakdown in storytelling—the inability to imagine coexistence. (42:35, 42:47)
• Prasad closes with a South Indian folktale: Three people seeking God must make space for one another during a storm; when they finally stand together in discomfort, the divine appears. She interprets this as a parable about the necessity—and reward—of accommodating difference for collective flourishing. (43:21–46:50)

“Think further, take the question further. What do we stand to gain by being a little uncomfortable in the short run? Is there a collective flourishing that's possible that actually benefits every single one of us?” (Leela, 45:45)

9. The Ongoing Nature of the Question

• Both agree that perhaps the “God shaped hole” is not one to be filled, but a question to be continually asked—a work in progress.

  “Maybe we God, because it's not a hole that we'll ever fill. But it's just a question we need to keep asking. It's a poem we need to keep writing... a story we need to keep telling.” (Steve, 47:47–48:06)

10. Tools for Navigating Difference: Listening & Humility

• Steve asks for practical tools in navigating difference respectfully.
• Prasad offers:

  “It's cheap. You can get it without paying anything. It's a lifetime tool... It's simply called listening.” (Leela, 49:02)

• Listening, humility, and attention are the core practices she recommends for respectful engagement with the sacred and with difference.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We construct something, we breathe life into it, we tell stories about it, but it's really our attempt...to comprehend the grandeur and the vastness and the inscrutability of things.” (Leela, 04:37)
• “Even belief in an external God requires imagination, doesn't it?” (Leela, 07:55)
• “I don't see religion...as being about doctrine alone. It's about breathing life into mysteries.” (Leela, 08:15)
• “If it is sacred to you...then what is stopping it from being sacred?” (Leela, 14:12)
• “It's about finding the center of gravity and dwelling in it.” (Leela, 23:19)
• “There's something about the collective that is a different order, emotion...that has the power to effect a transformation.” (Leela, 27:46)
• “Maybe we are not allowing stories to coexist...it was the gesture of accommodating the two stories to sit alongside each other that allows for pluralism.” (Leela, 30:17–30:30)
• “Religion is also about divisiveness...it's a question of lost opportunities.” (Leela, 40:15)
• “There's a fundamental failure of imagination.” (Leela, 42:47)
• “It's simply called listening.” (Leela, 49:02)
• “Maybe religion is really about noticing things, about attending to something...” (Leela, 50:44)

Important Timestamps

• 01:00 — Steve’s framing of the central question: “Why do we God?”
• 04:37 — Leela on religion as engaging with mystery
• 07:12–09:13 — The role of storytelling in religion
• 14:12 — Sacredness as personally and communally constituted
• 22:00 — Steve’s Golden Temple story
• 23:19–23:39 — The sacred as a “center of gravity”
• 27:46 — Community and the transformative power of collective ritual
• 28:44–31:40 — Story of the leopard: plural stories coexisting
• 34:33–36:41 — Wagah border ceremony as ritualized division and reconciliation
• 39:55 — On religious pluralism (or its absence)
• 42:47 — “A fundamental failure of imagination”
• 43:21–46:50 — Parable of three seekers and the virtue of accommodation
• 47:47–48:06 — The God-shaped hole as unfilled, ongoing question
• 49:02 — The power of listening

Tone and Style

The conversation is warm, reflective, sometimes playful, and often profound. Steve maintains an honest, “still-figuring-it-out” vulnerability, while Leela offers nuanced, scholarly perspectives rooted in personal and cross-cultural insights—always inviting, never dogmatic.

Conclusion

This episode invites listeners to ponder not just why humans “God,” but how we might do it better—through pluralistic storytelling, imaginative humility, and, above all, deep listening. The longing for connection, meaning, and sacredness is portrayed as a universal, unfinished story—one that is continually made and remade in every person and community, and never finally resolved.

End of summary.