Is God a Metaphor?

(A rather harsh questioning of Christianity that's actually a re-post from American Kitchen on determining if God is better looked at as an anthropomorphism of the Good and how sanity forces to question if having a "personal relationship" with God as a person isn't maybe an illusion.)

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The below was a response I wrote to a friend after he sent me a typical mushy Christian modern parable email claiming that a super-intimate "walk" with God is the highest ideal - which may or may not be the case depending on how you want to look at it.
Feedback from all welcomed on this.

Dear friend,

[this is probably putting more energy into this than deserves … but oh well, here it goes…]

Emotional metaphor upon emotional metaphor….. … another cute story with minuscule interpretation of history playing off a twist of metaphors to give the illusion of a “revelation” --- only to trick the reader into somehow still feeling defeated for what the megalomaniac author claims to have with “there is no substitute for unconditional, intimate relationship with God” and holding out still the “hope” that this is actually possible and advisable to me.

Give me a break.

Well… yes…. First of all let me reply with “Well of course, I also want this great big giant spirit friend who will play the role of my father and who also happens to be the one-and-only original maker of all the universe. He can watch out for me, do things for me, protect me from death, be there for me to cry upon his shoulder; he’ll give me meaning and purpose in life and even magical wish-powers and knowledge of the vast eternal worlds that hold the living and the dead, the future and the past.

And all he wants in return is to be loved whole-heartedly.

For sure, I want to get in on this adoption policy.

How do I sign up and how soon can I meet this giant friendly maker of the universe? And can we be best buddies?

Will I have to sort of pretend? You know, have faith that when I talk he is listening and when I’m sorry he forgives me and when I ask for something and he doesn’t give it to me that he was really watching out for my best interests anyway?

Do I have to get with other people who pretend this same talking-to-the-giant-buddy game, so we can confirm each other that “yep, you’ve had some more evidence, too? Well, so have I. This big spirit buddy really is there and he’s watching over me and you both.”


Do I have to really train my mind with lots of ancient stories and writings that when interpreted personally I can feel like this is how the giant spirit buddy is communicating with me? How can I know when he really is talking to me and it’s not just my imagination or wishful thinking or even my own internal neurotic self at work? Should I just “have faith” and that’ll sort of make it so?

I’m not suggesting that it isn’t possible to “love God with all your heart and soul” ….. if you simply change the word “the God” to “the Good” which is what the metaphor is most likely trying to capture anyway.

This could be doable and I could even understand it as the highest command.

But if I make this concept of “Good” into a giant personal spirit buddy daddy deity who lives in the sky, I find it a little harder to stay in touch with Him and to stay in touch with reality at the same time.

I’m not saying there is no God. I’m saying that your “intimate relationship with God” may actually be a personal relationship with Good.

Yours in Love and Truth,
Reverend Sanders