Cause over Life, Matter, Energy, Space and Time, subjective and objective.

Works for me.

If there was a god, this'd be just as good as any competing philosophy ... whatever works ...

Gods and Goddesses - The dreamers who experience the manifestation of their dreams and/or nightmares as if they are lucid physical realities.

We even now know how the trick is done, at least in part. And it should be obvious to all the dreamers who the dreamers are. But some of the dreamers are so lost in their dreams that they haven't yet awakened to the realization that they are indeed the dreamer.

Did God get a job making definitions? Oh yeah, he already had that job, but we called it "creation".

Beautifully put.

It's as good as any other attempt I've seen!

Not sure I understood that, but if I did then that is what I call Nature with a big "N". I see absolutely no reason to call that God.

I vaguely see your point. But then I wonder what your definition of "Nature" is?

This opens up a whole can of worms I think. And is the very reason I can't count myself in as an "atheist".

A lot of atheists seem to think that we actually know or understand the nature of nature far better than we actually do.

In other words, if your definition of nature is simply "Any process that follows the laws of physics", then the next question I would put to you is one that Stephen Hawking asks:

"What breathes fire into the equations of physics that brings a universe into physical manifestation?"

In other words, if you go back to Sky's definition look very carefully at the first few words cause over life.

In other words, you can't point to the equations of science and say, "There they are!", because that's truly a fallacy. The laws of science are nothing more than a mathematical description of how things behave AFTER THE FACT. But what is the CAUSE of those equations?

Even science has no clue.

So then what exactly do you mean by "Nature"?

If you think you know what "Nature" is, then perhaps you know what God is as well? Scientists most certainly have NO CLUE.

Therefore, the terms "Nature and God" are truly interchangeable until we do know the nature of nature. Until then, they BOTH boil down to Mysticism without exception. They are both equally Magick.

Personally I think we're it. Tat T'vam Asi. We're the entity that breathes fire into the equations that manifests our dreams. We are the dreamer, and the dreamed, in a way that even science can never truly put a number on.

“By substance[God] I understand what is in itself and is conceived through itself”

Baruch Spinoza

Nature

The dreamer:

the beginning and the end

I can't come up with anything better than that.

By george I think you've got something here...