Copy of my twitter post of May 30, 2019:

God is an abstraction. Pretty much like quaternions, lambda-expressions or ideal sphere.

Ideal sphere does not exist, yet this abstraction is accurate enough to be useful in daily life. Similar things with God abstraction.

There are certain patterns that people observed for a long time: helping others usually pays back in future, being unfaithful to partners usually ends badly. People discovered many little patterns, that are grounded in structure of society, biology, nature.

People also noticed that environment often punishes them without any reason. No righteous man is safe from volcano eruption or plague. Perfect morals are not enough in unpredictable world.

These observations gradually formed an abstraction -- a heavenly father. He is capricious and may punish you with no reason. He sets an example of proper behavior, divergence from which will lead to problems in long term.

Does his heavenly father exist? Answer to this question won't change much.

What's important is that this abstraction is sufficient enough to describe complexities of the world. This abstraction is a useful tool that help to make decisions in daily life.

Just like idea of sphere.