Creating gods and attributing to them a theory of mind lead to several possible benefits. Most important, it leads to the belief that the gods can read our minds and know what we are thinking. In studies of many religions, the gods are “envisioned as possessing a deep knowing of people as unique individuals—of their ‘hearts and souls.’ ” According to Bering, this led “our ancestors to feel and behave as though their actions were being observed, tallied, judged by a supernatural audience”—in short, to greater social order.
