For a few days I’ve been thinking about the possibility that there is no God. For my whole life, I have assumed there was one, but I’ve never experienced him or had any kind of spiritual relationship with him. So I have no personal basis for claiming that I know or even suspect that there is a deity. I mean, I’d like there to be one, but that’s not really enough for me. I’m too skeptical to be satisfied with believing based solely on the desire to believe (sorry, Alma- it’s just not going to happen).
What if there is no God? What then? Is there morality without God? Of course there is. Morality, to me, is instinctive and universal. True morality at least. Every religion teaches respect and kindness towards fellow humans- we don’t need a god to tell us that. The things that aren’t universal, like whether God forbids the eating of pork or beef, are in my opinion clearly manmade morality. Arbitrary garbage that has to do with human institutions, not with what’s really right or wrong.
What’s “morally wrong” with coffee? Nothing; the very idea is preposteroous to everyone but Mormons. But to them, it’s a moral issue because they believe God commanded it. This is the kind of thing that I gleefully abandon. We need God to tell us to not drink coffee, to not eat pork, and to adhere to specific religious observances. We don’t need God to tell us to not be jerks. We know to not be jerks on our own, and we manage to do it regardless, even when we’re told to not do it by “God.”
Anyway, I digress. I don’t feel like I need God to have morality, and anyway, that’s beside the point. If there’s no God there’s no God regardless of whether we “need” him for something or not.
So if there is no God, what is there? I don’t believe that the science we have describes everything, and I don’t believe that the material is all that is. Maybe that’s ignorant and superstitious of me, but it’s who I am. Does that mean I believe in spirit, or in mind that is separate from body? I’m not sure. Does it mean I believe in magic? Unfortunately, no. As cool as magic would be, I don’t think it exists (unless you define it so broadly that it can’t help but exist, and then you’re not saying anything useful). Likewise, in believing that there is something more than the material, I suppose I could formulate what I do believe in and call it “God,” but that would actually only confuse and mislead, since I would be talking about something that is a far cry from what most people mean when they use the term.
I’m not so sure I believe in a distinct divine being with consciousness and personalty. I certainly don’t believe in a God with a physical form (of flesh and bone or otherwise). The thing is, the more I think about it, the more I think I may be comfortable with the idea of no God. Not because it gives me license to do whatever I want or anything, because like I said, I still believe in morality.
I certainly do not have all the answers, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else does, either, no matter how adamantly they claim to have them. I believe in mystery. I believe in the unexplained, and perhaps in the unexplainable. I believe that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. But I don’t know if I believe in God.
Sailing to Byzantium 
There is a whole hierarchy of divine beings, with God very elusive at the invisible top. I tend to appeal to the hierarchy closest to us, the angels. I believe it is possible to be rather personal with the angels.
Oh. No, I don’t really think so. I remain sadly unconvinced.
If you decide that you don’t believe in God, good for you. As you have realized, we don’t need a god to be moral and more importantly, whether we need a god or not has no bearing on the actual existence of one.
It’s fine that there is some mystery still left in the world. Even if we don’t know some things, calling the unknown “god” is unhelpful at best.
Of course, whether I need a god to be moral doesn’t end the inquiry.
There are other reasons to need a god. All kinds of reasons, probably it’s arguable that some are good and some are bad.
Then, beyond need, there’s want. i might want a god, even though I acknowledge that I have no need of one.
And of course, like you said, Simen, none of that has much bearing on whether there is in fact a God, which, unless he reveals himself to me, is for the time being completely unknowable.
Hey , nice post. Following on the post , I doubt the very existence of god since god was invented by man to help us with keeping people in line, and since most of us are intelligent enough to know the simplicities of not stealing and helping each other , who needs god? Rational thought is something we need. There’s always going to be peoples’ interpretations of what morality is – morality is subjective to whatever situation we are in. If it’s a sin to lie , but lying saves someone – we will do it. Whether you want a god , just to feel good is your decision but for me I choose to be god less.