As a believer who attends church every nearly Sunday and who possesses a scientific education I never get away from this problem. I'm sort of like Matthew except that instead of "metaphor" I use the word "story."

My born-again sister would insist that I am already sliding down the chute into the eternal flames for maintaining that God is "just a story." But she would be the one adding the belittling word "just," not me.

I have tried to explain this numerous times, including here https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-believe-in-god-even-if-you-are-an-atheist-110fe05a119c but I don't think I succeeded.

I take on this story of God as my own, including the incarnation, passion, in resurrection--all stories that have been with us humans from a time before we were human. As with other such mythologies such as Hellenism it is bound up with a seasonal cycle. The events cycle around through the year. Birth, growth, maturity, death. Birth, growth, maturity, death. Birth, growth, maturity, death. It keeps going. Probably as a result of its strong connection to Judaism, which is legalistic rather than mythological, Christianity breaks with this by, in most versions, positing, presumably to go along with an unending and unchanging God, an unending and unchanging eternal life.

For my part, this sounds like Hell no mater which way you slice it. https://medium.com/crows-feet/its-been-fun-8d22826f8473 The human mind was not built for eternity. Assuming that God is merciful, when we die it's lights out.

Leaving me with the question of why I go to church if not for the hope of heaven. It's my story. I attend a liberal all-accepting church that happens to have a stunning church building dating from 1848 and a superb music program. I find the ceremony beautiful and moving.

Whether or not something as costly to maintain as a church could be sustained on the basis of the Story of God is anybody's guess. I kind of doubt it, but if I say that many people in my church maintain the objective reality of God I am making an assumption that might not even be true, based on the few conversations I have had with other parishioners.