God is a concept
By which we measure our pain.

The line comes from John Lennon’s song “God,” recorded in 1970 for his debut solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Written and performed in the wake of the Beatles’ breakup and Lennon’s highly publicized shift away from inherited institutions, the song is a stark, confessional inventory of things he says he does not believe in—ranging from religious ideas to cultural icons—before concluding with a pared-down statement of what he does believe in. The lyric reflects the album’s austere, therapeutic tone and Lennon’s desire to strip away comforting myths in favor of personal responsibility and emotional honesty.

“God is a concept / by which we measure our pain” treats “God” less as a being than as an idea people use to name, scale, or make sense of suffering. Lennon suggests that belief can function as a psychological yardstick: pain becomes intelligible when framed by a larger narrative of purpose, judgment, or consolation. In the song’s broader renunciation of external authorities, the line also implies that reliance on such concepts may be a way of outsourcing meaning-making. The lyric is not merely atheistic; it is diagnostic, pointing to how metaphysical language can arise from—and be calibrated by—human vulnerability.