God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

—John Lennon

We've been studying Dante's Inferno in my class, and so, not unnaturally, religion is kind of a big topic on our minds of late. Well, long story short, this thought has occurred to me.....

God is a scapegoat.

If things never went wrong for us, we'd not have to blame anyone for those things. As it is, though, far be it for us to take responsibility. It must be the responsibility of someone or something that we cannot control or fix.

Think about it: if everything always went well, would you feel any need to attribute it to someone else? The existence of God in good times is an afterthought — a cover-up, if you will.

John Lennon had a rather mixed-up sense of politics and the like, but he nailed this one. Probably.