Divine "Magic" Loses Credibility
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It's true that the evidence against god as the traditional "big magic guy in the sky" is mounting, and that among most educated people this concept of god has been rejected. It's biggest problem was that it was based on the supernatural as evidence for it's existence, and as science uncovers the natural processes and causes for so many things that we humans used to believe to be supernatural, that evidence has dissipated. The "big magic guy in the sky" can only be supported by "supernatural" evidence among those who don't know any better, or those who refuse to know any better, and that group is shrinking in this scientific age.

Yet at the same time, there is still a need in us to place ourselves before a higher moral and intellectual power than we humans believe we can muster ourselves. The need is real enough by any standard, scientific or otherwise, and does produce positive results when appropriately met. So how do we reconcile our waning belief in the "big magic guy in the sky" with this need we have for a "higher power"? I know myself that the concept of god may well be a fiction, yet to live "as if" there is a God has brought great healing into my life that science, with all it's cutting edge technology, could not. And I know I am not alone in this.
 
So perhaps the error was not in our thinking that God exists, but was in our thinking that God is supernatural. The concept defined by the word "god" is an invention in our own minds, that's true, but the need to invent it and to live with it is real enough and natural enough. And so are the results of doing so. So the question then becomes not "does my God exist or doesn't it", but " why have I chosen this particular image of God, and what is the result in my life of my doing so?" If we could separate ourselves from the insistence that our ideas about God ARE God, and let go of trying to prove them through supernatural means, maybe we could begin to see that God is far more real than we ever thought. Maybe the reality of god precedes even our ideas of it (I use "it" here to avoid a usual anthropomorphic preconceptions).
 
I personally have been moving slowly but steadily away from a very external notion of God that was similar to the old Jewish idea of God, through Christianity (where God becomes a part of us), to a more holistic and natural intuition of God; before God gets a name, that includes everyday existence as part of it. For me, God has become the "logos" again: the intricate patterns that energy follows to create all that exists. God is the "way" (Tao) of existence. And so my own humanity is part of that logos, that Tao, that "way". My need for a higher moral and spiritual power in my life is natural. It's part of who I am as a human being, and it's good for me. It's real. The images I/we use to help us express this need may be human inventions, but this is what we humans do. This is part of our Tao, our logos, our "way". These intellectual inventions are how the pattern I call God is expressed through me, and through others.
 
So for me it isn't a matter of "either/or": that God as I conceive of "Him" must be true or false. I understand that my conceptions of God are my own, and so are those of others, and that the reality of God precedes our conceptions; inspires them, in fact. God is not supernatural to me. On the contrary, God is the very natural need I have to relate myself to a "higher power" and is expressed through all the different ways we humans choose to do this. I can have my own personal conceptions about God, yet allow them to be only that. The whole universe and everything in it does not have to comply with my conceptions. There is a way of letting go of that "big magic guy in the sky" image of God without letting go of God as a higher moral, spiritual, or intellectual power and without losing sight of the reality of God in our everyday lives. But to do so means we have to accept some mystery regarding God, and keep a humble perspective of our own theologies.

Peace,
Dave