Are we all really pagans?

Following on from my previous post on being watched, I recently read this passage, which stopped me in my tracks:

It is childish, and pagan, to anthropomorphize God as an “eye in the sky”, watching our every move. It is more mature to focus on our mental and spiritual awareness of the reality of God in our lives.

Admittedly I have taken this passage out of context, but its meaning is clear and it troubled me nonetheless. Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (Avot 2:1) teaches:

הִסְתַּכֵּל בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה דְבָרִים, וְאֵין אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה, דַּע מַה לְּמַֽעְלָה מִמָּךְ, עַֽיִן רוֹאָה וְאֹֽזֶן שׁוֹמַֽעַת, וְכָל מַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ בְּסֵֽפֶר נִכְתָּבִים

Contemplate three things, and you will not come to the hands of transgression: Know what is above you: a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book.

I am uncomfortable with the suggestion that this Mishnah is a childish anthropomorphism and I do not believe that R’ Yehudah HaNasi intended it as such, either. He is inviting us to conduct a thought experiment, at any moment when we might be tempted to do contravene Jewish law or the moral standards that accompany it: we can ask ourselves to imagine that we are being watched by the God who is also our judge.  If, at the point of sinning, we can “focus on our mental and spiritual awareness of the reality of God in our lives”, this would indeed demonstrate a greater maturity on our part. But, in general, which is the more direct route to stopping us when we are in “about to flout” mode?

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The quote above comes from Rabbi Anthony Manning’s halachic analysis in Reclaiming Dignity (Mosaica 2023) at p.237.