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