What use is God if he can’t actually do anything for us? Part 5

What use is God if he can’t actually do anything for us?

Part 5: Things we have lost in our new understanding of God

1. There is no point praying for God to change the world to give us something we want. (Remember, all these things can be helped through human agency – just not instantly and miraculously, by the power of God) This covers a lot of good things (as well as some unworthy, selfish things):- Sick people to get better. Natural disasters not to happen or improve. Wars to stop. A good and worthy thing to happen eg get a job

2. We will not go to heaven when we die

This seems a suitable conclusion: if God only exists within our minds, then he does not exist as a metaphysical spiritual reality, in which case other metaphysical spiritual realities such as souls and heaven won’t exist either. I do just hang on to the possibility that there might be something – but I think this probably needs to be let go of, and we’ll consider it more closely another time.

I do think that something of the value of profound ideas like life after death may still be able to be salvaged through reinterpreting the idea – perhaps in a similar way to the way the “keeping the faith” idea preserved the effect of being able to pass on prayers to others.

3. Final justice will not be done

If there is no God, and no life after death, we will just have to accept that some people will literally get away with murder. Those who suffer the grossest injustices will have to come to terms with the fact that their one chance of life has been blighted or ended by utterly selfish, wicked people, who don’t care at all about the damage they do to others.

4. Specifics of religions will need to be reinterpreted. Religions usually have miraculous elements, and these will have to be reinterpreted. In particular, in Christianity, the religion depends on the claim that Jesus rose from the dead – with the implication that we too will live with him in heaven. It is not impossible to reinterpret these aspects – and many Christians have been doing this successfully for generations – but it is a big undertaking.