Is God Necessary?

Is God necessary?  What might this question mean? 

Is God necessary for the world to contain the exquisitely interlaced layers of design it has?

Is God necessary to establish morality?

Is God necessary to connect with the miracle of living and being?

Is God necessary for the human being to be truly human?

Is God a tool or a crutch, and what determines whether God is used as one or the other?

Does God bring a special kind of humor and equanimity to our lives?

Does God bring acceptance of death and dying?

Is God an idea that some people need more than others?  (More than other people do?  More than they need other people?  More than other ideas?)

Is God the necessary source of thankfulness or gratefulness?

Is the idea of God necessary so that people who rebel have something to fight?

Is the idea of a caring, all-good God necessary so that some (e.g., some Holocaust survivors) have someone to blame for their abandoning religion and trust?

Is love of God a substitute for actual, honest love?

Clearly, that is a lot of questioning of the purpose for God in our culture.  What is equally startling is that all this questioning can happen shy of a clear explication of what we mean by God.  And maybe that is for the best.  Perhaps the best way to understand the reason for God is to arrive at that knowledge implicitly.  Each question, by its very nature, implies a possible understanding of God.  That, I think is the best I can offer.  God’s “description” is a set of possibilities.  And the more we think about those possibilities, the more we are with God.

Can you think about many possibilities?  Is God the source of possibilities?  Are possibilities necessary?