“Without God, the world would be too painful.” [From How to Raise an Elephant, one of the books by Alexander McCall Smith in the delightful series that begins with The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.] The reaction to this quote from a religious person would likely be a knowing nod of the head in agreement. Without our loving God to guide and protect us, how terrible life would be! What purpose would we have? What reason for hope?
In 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that “God is dead.” He didn’t mean that God was actually dead but that declining religious beliefs and values required humanity to come up with some other source of values. (For a good article on Nietzsche’s meaning, go to: https://www.thelivingphilosophy.com/p/god-is-dead)
Mid-20th-century theologians and philosophers popularized this phrase, but they meant that God really is dead, and we are all abandoned. Since then, society has indeed seen a decline in religious beliefs and the subsequent struggle for standards of morality. However, if God has died, it has been only in the hearts of some people.
When the world seems irreparably messed up, it might also seem logical to conclude that God has died or has just walked off and left us to our own misery. After all, God is goodness and light, so if the world is bad and dark, then God must be gone.
That’s just the point, though. God is all good, and God loves us, so there is no way that God would forsake us. As the hymn says, “Be not afraid. I go before you always” with always meaning forever and ever without end.
Marx and the Great Minds on Religion
The concept of life without God brings to mind Karl Marx’s analysis that “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”[
Modern cynics love to quote Marx as proof that God is not real but an invention of frightened, ignorant people trying to explain the vagaries of life. They say that peasants may succumb to religion for comfort in their suffering, but intelligent, educated people don’t need such superstition. They can figure things out on their own and to their own liking.
If you do find the idea of a world without God to be frightening and painful, don’t be intimidated by these intellectual snobs. Instead, be glad that you are smart enough to discern the great void, known as hell, that results from the absence of God.
You are also in good company with some of the greatest minds in history such as Spinosa, Kierkegaard, Descartes, Aquinas, St. Augustine, Aristotle, and Plato. In fact, atheists and agnostics have been in the minority throughout history. Religions exist all around the world, and although they may take different forms, some with multiple gods or a god-like spiritualism, the overwhelming conclusion of the deep thinkers has been that there is a God.
Note that, although much violence and death has resulted from religious conflicts, the most ruthless dictators, now and throughout time, have denied the existence of God. They, like Lucifer, have been jealous of God’s power. Since they can’t compete, they just claim God doesn’t exist!
Denying God allows them to throw out God’s laws for their own tyranny.
Funny how that has never worked. All those evil dictators have died, usually in a state of ruin. Remember Shelley’s poem: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” The temple of Ozymandias crumpled in the dust, but the world is filled with beautiful temples dedicated to God, who is still here, still loving us, still listening and helping.
God Makes Sense
Claire Swinarski wrote recently in her newsletter “The Catholic Feminist”: “Your God doesn’t make sense, people shriek, when suffering abounds. Your thoughts and prayers are bullshit. No, I want to respond. These are the places where he makes the very most sense. These are the places where we feel the strongest that there is more to this world than bloodshed, and there is ‘light and high beauty’ forever beyond our reach.” https://thecatholicfeminist.substack.com/
Exactly. We do not go running to our supposedly imaginary God when trouble strikes because we can’t face reality and want to delude ourselves with a Santa Claus or an imaginary friend. Delusional people are like the aforementioned dictators. Delusional people are the ones who think they can run from God.
Running away from God, or substituting the real God for a false god, is fruitless. Real help comes not from isolation or phony idols or cults, but from the loving God we instinctively know exists. That’s why there are no atheists in foxholes—when reality hits you in the face, it becomes clear that “nearer my God to Thee” is the way to go.
Contrary to Marxian thought, people did not invent the idea of a god. If we had, then God would resemble people and be violent, a tyrant demanding riches and power. The Jewish people expected a king like the earthly kings they had known, complete with armies to defeat their enemies. The God they got was a humble carpenter with no army, no money, no power. All he offered was all that is needed: love.
An Inseparable Family Tie
We were made in God’s image and likeness, not the other way around. As humans, we may try to set up false idols of wealth or fame or try to pretend that there is no God. We may try to make God appear to be like us or wish God were dead, but that never works because, without God, the world is too painful, too lonely, too full of despair. We were made by and for the goodness and love that come from the one, true God who is now and ever shall be.
This essay is not intended to prove that God exists. Rather, my intent is to show that we cannot exist well without God. Studies show that God is so essential to our well-being that a lack of religious engagement negatively affects our mental and physical health. On the other hand, a belief in God lowers one’s risk of illness and addiction.
People of faith also have the community support that is so essential to happiness because social engagement provides purpose and coping skills. As I have so often advocated in this column (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/musingsfromthepew/2021/12/the-loneliness-cure-its-in-church/), the solution to the great epidemic of loneliness in our society is to go to church and develop relationships with God and other believers (https://angelusnews.com/faith/updated-data-showing-faith-can-aid-in-recovery-prompts-support-skepticism/).
Humans are the children of God, so the familial connection is ingrained in us; it is in our DNA. We sense the presence of God, and we are programmed to need God. Denying God’s existence is like denying that you need oxygen to live for God is the “breath of life.” God is the power source for your electrical wiring— you can’t function without plugging yourself into God’s abundant energy and love.
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