Let us suppose that he found the salt lick that I left out in the yard for him and thought to himself that he had deserved that because he had done something. Perhaps he imagined that the salt lick was a reward for eating my azaleas the day before. Since he did not know me, he thought he had deserved the salt. From now on he would go to the azaleas and eat them because he thinks that will bring the salt to him. Finally, he has to be locked out of my yard because of his destruction to it.
False religion is the same way.
Many people do not know God, so they go about doing God favors so they might appease Him. They may make it a law that everyone has to keep Sunday holy as a day of worship as has been done in various parts of the world. They may have a good deal of display in their worship service. One day God has to destroy this Babylon since they do such destruction to His garden. The deer may do many things because he is afraid of me, and humankind does the same in regards to God.