HOW TO START YOUR OWN RELIGIONStep Two: Choose Your Faith
We all must have faith in something. Without faith, there is no hope.
Nonreligious people bristle at the word faith, but having faith is
inevitable. Evidence and science are based on past experience. Hope is based
on future experience. And you must always rely on some degree of faith that
something will occur again in the future.^15 You pay your mortgage because
you have faith that money is real, and credit is real, and a bank taking all your
shit is real.^16 You tell your kids to do their homework because you have faith
that their education is important, that it will lead them to their becoming
happier, healthier adults. You have faith that happiness exists and is possible.
You have faith that living longer is worth it, so you strive to stay safe and
healthy. You have faith that love matters, that your job matters, that any of
this matters.
So, there’s no such thing as an atheist. Well, sorta. Depends what you
mean by “atheist.”^17 My point is that we must all believe, on faith, that
something is important. Even if you’re a nihilist, you are believing, on faith,
that nothing is more important than anything else.
So, in the end, it’s all faith.^18
The important question, then, is: Faith in what? What do we choose to
believe?
Whatever our Feeling Brain adopts as its highest value, this tippy top of our
value hierarchy becomes the lens through which we interpret all other values.
Let’s call this highest value the “God Value.”^19 Some people’s God Value is
money. These people view all other things (family, love, prestige, politics)
through the prism of money. Their family will love them only if they make
enough money. They will be respected only if they have money. All conflict,
frustration, jealousy, anxiety—everything boils down to money.^20
Other people’s God Value is love. They view all other values through the
prism of love—they’re against conflict in all its forms, they’re against
anything that separates or divides others.
Obviously, many people adopt Jesus Christ, or Muhammad, or the
Buddha, as their God Value. They then interpret everything they experience
through the prism of that spiritual leader’s teachings.