National Geographic Channel and Executive Producers Morgan Freeman, Lori McCreary and James Younger of Revelations Entertainment announced today The Story of God, a new global series exploring mankind’s quest to understand the divine.

Host Freeman will embark on an epic exploration and intimate reflection on God, immersing himself in religious experiences and rituals all around the world, as well as becoming a test subject in scientific labs to examine how the frontiers of neuroscience and cosmology are intersecting the traditional domain of religion. The Story of God is slated to air on National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Mundo in 2016 in the U.S. and globally in 171 countries and 45 languages.

Each episode of The Story of God will center on one big question about the divine, from the mystery of creation, to the true power of miracles, to the promise of resurrection. These timeless and universal mysteries impact people from every faith. Freeman will be on the ground at some of humanity’s greatest religious sites, such as Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, India’s Bodhi Tree, Mayan temples and the Lakewood megachurch in Texas. He’ll travel with archaeologists to uncover the long-lost religions of our ancestors, such as the 10,000-year-old ruins at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey or the ancient Celtic monument at Stonehenge.

“The story of God is one of the greatest mysteries and most important ideas in the world,” said Freeman. “For me, this is a personal and enduring quest to understand the divine, and I am humbled by the opportunity to take viewers along on this incredible journey.”

This is a quest for God — to shed light on the questions that have puzzled, terrified and inspired mankind. Today, those eternal questions are also posed by science. In the course of the series, Freeman will travel to labs where he’ll see the most accurate simulation of the creation of our universe unfold in front of his eyes, and become a test subject for neuroscientists who are searching for the effect of God on our networks of neurons.

All along this ambitious exploration of religion, Freeman will give his personal reflections on the divine, whether he’s in the back of a taxi leaving the Vatican or hiking through the Guatemalan jungle on the way to an abandoned Mayan temple.

Season 1 on DVD January 10th and Season 2 premieres on National Geographic, January 16th.