God Value. The religion built around the worship of evidence is more
commonly known as “science,” and it’s arguably the best thing we’ve ever
done as a species. But we’ll get to science and its ramifications in the next
chapter.
My point is that all values are faith-based beliefs. Therefore, all hope (and
therefore, all religions) are also based on faith, faith that something can be
important and valuable and right despite the fact that there will never be a
way to verify it beyond all doubt.
For our purposes, I’ve defined three types of religions, each type based on
a different kind of God Value:
Spiritual religions. Spiritual religions draw hope from supernatural beliefs, or belief in things
that exist outside the physical or material realm. These religions look for a better future outside this
world and this life. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, animism, and Greek mythology are examples of
spiritual religions.
Ideological religions. Ideological religions draw hope from the natural world. They look for
salvation and growth and develop faith-based beliefs regarding this world and this life. Examples
include capitalism, communism, environmentalism, liberalism, fascism, and libertarianism.
Interpersonal religions. Interpersonal religions draw hope from other people in our lives.
Examples of interpersonal religions include romantic love, children, sports heroes, political
leaders, and celebrities.
Spiritual religions are high risk/high reward. They require, by far, the
most skill and charisma to get going. But they also pay off the most in terms
of follower loyalty and benefits. (I mean, have you seen the Vatican? Holy
shit.) And if you build one really well, it’ll last way after you die.
Ideological religions play the religion formation game on “Normal
Difficulty.” These religions take a lot of work and effort to create, but they’re
fairly common. But because they’re so common, they run into a lot of
competition for people’s hopes. They are often described as cultural “trends,”
and indeed, few of them survive more than a few years or decades. Only the
best last through multiple centuries.
Finally, interpersonal religions are playing the religion formation game on
“Easy” mode. That’s because interpersonal religions are as common as people
themselves. Pretty much all of us, at some point in our lives, completely
surrender ourselves and our self-worth to another individual. The
interpersonal religion is sometimes experienced as an adolescent, naïve sort of
love and it’s the type of shit that you have to suffer through before you can
ever grow out of it.
Let’s start with spiritual religions, as they have the highest stakes and are
arguably the most important religions in human history.