I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that even john didn't know what it meant. it just sounded like a really good song line. so good in fact that he sang it twice at the start of the song. he goes on to list the things he no longer believes in, from jesus to zimmerman to elvis to finally the beatles themselves and concludes with the line "the dream is over". so for him I think it was an ending and a beginning. a letting go off his past to allow himself a future. something we all have to do from time to time.

God is a paradigm of thought most can't think beyond.

Yes, God is a concept or an idea -- but a fallacious one.

That is an interesting quote. I don't think I've seen it before. Need to think about it a little - good question.