Mentalizing enables believers to interact with and be policed by gods

Evidence

Returning to mentalizing tendencies, it becomes clear why they are so central in believing in, and committing to, divine beings. Without them, believers could not discern what God desires or dislikes, and therefore could not pray, ask for favors, or seek forgiveness. Without mind reading, believers could not meaningfully interact with God—after all, God and other supernatural agents are intuitively understood to be immaterial minds. God could not deploy supernatural powers to do what many gods are busy doing: respond to existential concerns like death or uncertainty, avert a misfortune or cause one to someone else, and of course, monitor and police social behavior. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 75

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s core premise that Rodrigues’s whole devotional life depends on perceiving God as a mind that watches and judges his apostasy in public.