John Doe follows his own bizarre form of Christianity, where God wants him to show the world what an awful place it’s become (I suppose a case could be made that John isn’t even Christian since the Seven Deadly Sins aren’t officially in the Bible; I wish that kind of reasoning stands the next time someone starts saying dinosaur bones are the work of the devil. Dude, you’re talking expanded universe material and it ain’t officially canon.)

John serves as a mirror to bizarre real-life zealots who choose their religious convictions the same way they pick what to take at the salad bar. Meaning, they have no problem throwing the hammer of god down on us but believe they and their shit-heel antics have a cosmic get-out-jail card. I doubt it, but maybe that’s what he means when he says “what I’ve done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed forever.”

John Doe: “Realize detective, the only reason that I’m here right now is that I wanted to be.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHOW_Fg_KZw