See, the way I look at it is ...

See, the way I look at it is that we—as a life-form—are a set of interactively integrated biochemical processes dynamically responding to the environment within which we are interactive.

Over the course of our emergence as a life-form, awareness—our conscious sense of our existence—has also emerged. And as it has emerged, we have created—as best we can—a narrative to explain the emergence of our existence and the type of awareness that has developed out of the biochemical encoding of current states of existence as memory for future reference.

We not only interact in the present with the environment "out there" but also with the memory environment from past experiencing of existence, and with the sets of "automatic" responses "hardwired" into us ... such as that of fear or lust or awe.

It is important to note that others as well as ourselves can erect a "mental monument" or archetype such as a concept of God that becomes a reference in our lives for the rest of our lives.