What does it mean to say there can be no morality without an idea of God? Does that notion not imply there can be no morality without rewards and punishments? And does it not also unconsciously imply we that we are being good not because we love God, but because we seek rewards or fear punishment? How can such “stick and carrot” religion lead us anywhere but to silliness or fear?
If we would seek the sacred, it cannot be in the form of a mental image of God. Any such image says more about ourselves than about reality. Religious symbols like “God” can be helpful in counterbalancing the illusion of a self that stands over and against the universe, but the “truth” of any such symbol is found in the larger life it calls us to.
Our home is found not in religion, but always in the real. If we would seek to know reality, we must love the true simply because it is true, the beautiful simply because it is beautiful, and the good simply because it is good. Religion is always a bridge of sand that we must quickly cross. Woe be it to those who have no bridge into our larger life, and woe be it to those who build their house upon that bridge.