Everyone Believes in God

What if I told you that absolutely every person, whether consciously or unconsciously, believes in God?

The basics of my theory are that, when interacting with another person, I interact with an aspect of myself which has an innate sense of truth. The choice I make relative to that truth sets me up for judgement and subsequent salvation or damnation. This aspect of myself is what I am calling God, particularly because, as I hope to show in this post, this aspect aligns with the understanding of God from Judeo-Christian theology.

Whenever I interact with another person, I have a choice: treat them like a person or treat them like an object. If I choose to treat them like a person, my mind gives me a path forward which exhibits treating that person like a person. If I choose to treat them like an object, I must supply a reason that the person is an object, and then I get a path forward which exhibits treating that person like an object.

Let me illustrate this with an example. At work, I need to get other people to review my code before it gets sent to our customers. We follow this protocol to help ensure that the work which ends up in our collective codebase is consistent and high quality. Each of my coworkers is an engineer, but they are at various levels such as beginner, junior, senior, and principle. When I review other people's code, the code itself is an object, but I can treat the person who wrote it as a person or as an object.

If I treat the person who wrote the code as a person, then I view the code by evaluating how it will actually perform when it reaches our customers. Will it produce the right output? Will it be fast and efficient? Will we be able to read and augment this code as needed in the future? Then, I ensure that all of the comments I make on that code are specifically addressing those questions.

On the other hand, if I see the engineer as an object, then I might see them as a measure of my own engineering prowess. In other words, what's their rank vs. my rank? How is rank reflected in the code? And how can I exploit the code for my own rank? I still look at the code for the exact same questions I have when I treat them as a person (correctness, performance, maintenance), but I now have added questions such as "can I show this code is poorly written?" and "how can I show my code is superior?"

In the moment that I choose to see my fellow engineers as objects, I must provide my mind with a justification about why they are an object: rank measures my worth and this person is either inferior or superior to me and I need to show it.

Why do I need this justification? Because without the justification I cannot show my superiority. Those extra questions do not need to be in the review process. If I proceed with reviewing that code and I include those questions in the process, why are the questions there? If the other person really is a person who matters as much as I do, those questions are unnecessary. But If that person is actually a measure of my worth, then those questions are essential. That person cannot be a measure of my worth unless I supply a reason.

But to whom am I supplying that reason? Am I not just supplying that justification to myself?

Yes, and no. Yes, all of this is happening inside my head. But, "no," because why do I need to justify myself to myself? Logically, that's nonsensical.

I am supplying the justification to the aspect of myself which sits in judgement of my worth: in other words, God. I believe my worth is tied to my rank and this other person also has rank so I have an opportunity to bolster my worth by comparing ranks.

If I am successful at demonstrating that I am superior, then I can live in satisfaction of preserved worth: I'm saved! Phew...

However, if I fail to find evidence of my worth, then my worth is doomed and I am miserable: I'm damned so bury me, hide me, and keep me from being seen.

Interestingly, until I have that evidence, I am in hell because my worth isn't certain. I don't want to stay in that state and I am anxious for some saving evidence to get me out; burning fire and the stench of brimstone (i.e. sulfur or rotten egg) similarly drive me to move quickly out of an area.

Within each of us, there exists an aspect of the mind that can be called God. Every decision we make when interacting with others is, at its core, justified to this internal presence. In these justifications lie the paths to our own salvation and damnation.

The justifications happen quickly and are rarely consciously acknowledged.

You might say that narcissists don't have this aspect of their minds. I would argue the opposite—they do, but they are profoundly skilled at masking it through justification. Their justifications are so deeply ingrained and habitual that the internal 'watcher' becomes obscured. However, this does not mean that God—the aspect of the mind that holds them to truth—is absent. Instead, it exerts influence in subtler ways, manifesting as unresolved anxiety, self-delusion, or a relentless pursuit of validation; a form of hell. Their lives are burdened by judgement; by the constant pressure to maintain these justifications and avoid confronting the truth.

This is why I believe that everyone believes in God. You can see it in the way people watch each other while just walking around in a store. In the wonder and worry about how one will be evaluated by others. In the constant comparisons about worth. In the never-ending drive to succeed.

But what if I don't want to worry about hell or damnation? There is a simple solution: always treat people like people. That first decision prevents me from ever having to enter hell and fear being damned. I am always saved because my worth was never questioned. Interestingly, other people can sense that I carry no judgement toward them, which gives them an opportunity to reevaluate the justification they offered to their own God, and similarly step away from their anxiety.

When we choose to see others as people—fully human, equal in worth—we liberate ourselves from the endless cycle of judgment, justification, and anxiety. We step out of the shadows of comparison and into the light of truth, where our inner watcher, or God, becomes a source of peace rather than a reminder of our shortcomings. This is a radical yet simple choice, one that reshapes not only how we see others but also how we see ourselves. Imagine a world where every interaction begins with this understanding—a world where salvation is no longer something we seek, but something we live.

(NOTE: The ideas in this post are all mine, but AI was used to help build it out)

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