The "Purpose" of God

Outside of post-modern philosophy, there is a difference between reality and purpose.  The way an object is used is quite different from the question of whether it exists or not.  A hammer exists, whether it is used to bang nails or break glass.  Concepts, however, are not quite so easy to sort out.  Does "love" exist no matter how it is used or expressed?

What about God?  Does God function as an object or a concept?

I recently read a "philosophical" review of the film The Life of Pi., a movie which recently won several Oscars.  I don't really know much about the story itself beyond what I gathered from the review (I have not read the book or seen the film and was reading the review to see if I would be interested.  Feel free to defend either work in a reply!), but what strikes me particularly from the review itself is the assertion that seems to be at the heart of much modern contempt for organized religion and certain knowledge of the existence of God.  Without going into detail about the story, here are the pertinent points from the review as I read them:  1) The Life of Pi suggests that belief in God is something that people do because they are desperate to make sense of the world around them, 2) The reviewer argues that those who simply choose not to concern themselves with God appreciate reality more than theists, and 3) The reviewer, along with many atheist-agnostics the world over, seems to think that this "reality factor" is a devastatingly clever argument against belief in God.

The initial assertion--that belief in God is a kind of coping mechanism--reveals an essential problem with how religion is perceived by many believers and non-believers alike.  There is certainly something comforting in the idea that there is a loving and benevolent God watching out for us from heaven somewhere.  Divorced from an awareness of our own sin and need for redemption, this idea of God can be very self-affirming.  However, those who think that this is all there is to God have not done a good job of reading their Bible.  Scripture is filled with instances of faithful people who are tested and tried.  In this way, the God who loves us is much like the parent who loves us enough to push us to grow and mature into responsible adults.  Sinners who know they are sinners should feel a strain in their relationship with God from time to time.  If you never feel that God is pushing you out of your comfort zone, it probably isn't God you are listening to.

The second assertion--that the non-believer is more engaged with reality--logically follows the assumption that believers are just out for some form of stress-relief.  In this view, religious practice is like watching an engrossing film or reading a fantasy novel.  True religious belief does something completely different.  A priest recently gave me some very good advice about my attitude toward reality.  He said, "reality is the only place where we can meet God."  In other words, it is not possible to receive the love of Christ and pass it along to others when we are not in the same world with them.  If it encourages anything, true Christian faith encourages us to engage more deeply with our neighbor because we should care about what is really happening to them.

Both of these assertions betray a woeful ignorance of orthodox Christian teaching and culture.  Only such ignorance can really explain the scornful attitudes with which Christianity  is treated (along with, to a lesser extent, other religious traditions).  This attitude is generally little more than a means of shutting down any intellectual discussion about the existence of God.  Unfortunately for the atheist, it is only too easy to turn the tables on their argument.  All that is needed is to point out that they would be more in touch with reality if they were right that there is no God.  Since there is a God, those who deny His existence are the ones who are out of touch.  It remains to prove which position is correct.

At the end of the day, the existence of God is not contingent on the purpose we put Him to in our thoughts and lives.  Before we grouse too much about the condescension of atheists, we might consider how much like them we are if we worship the "God of Our Purposes" instead of the God Who Is.