Does religion need God?  In an excerpt from his soon to be published Religion Without God that appeared in the April 4 edition of The New York Review of Books, the late Ronald Dworkin observes that, among other things, "Human life cannot have any kind of meaning or value just because a loving god exists," and that "a god's existence can be shown to be either necessary or sufficient to justify a particular conviction of value only if some independent background principle explains why."
     Well, if Mr. Dworkin wants to say that meaning or value does not flow out of the fact of a loving god, then he cannot say that a god's existence will only justify value if an independent background principle explains why.  To the point, if there is no god, there is no basis for value, anyway, an eventuality to which any clear minded unbeliever would assent.  In the absence of a basis for value, there then cannot be an "independent background principle;" if such a thing existed, we would need to assume the fact of value, something that we have already seen that we cannot do without a God.  In short, there is no value without purpose, and there is no purpose, that is, purpose that is purpose greater than itself, without God.  We cannot have it both ways.  However, we assert value, we cannot realistically assert it with also asserting the fact of God.  In a blank universe, where else would we find it?
     Even more, and we may ponder this ever more closely this week of all weeks of the calendar year, even if we insist that value is the work of an empty universe (which it clearly cannot be), we are still left with just that, an empty universe, a universe without a heart.  How can we therefore fathom love, that most precious of all human experiences, if we have never been loved to begin with?
     Jesus had it right when, crucified, wracked with pain, and feeling utterly abandoned by the one he loved most, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34).  Jesus knew that a world without God is no world at all.
     So, too, is religion without God.  We'll never find our home.