What is God?
"... the cause of the phenomena of life."
Words are pointers to direct our attention towards objects: from idea to experience, forth and back.
"God" is not a word, neither a childhood story, nor a painkiller.
The original language and culture of the Bible was different than our here and now, but Reality and human nature are still the same.
It is foolishness if we allow words to separate us, to create barriers between us. In our person we are so easily intimidated or triggered.
God, Universe, Love, Consciousness... it all points to the same Reality at the core of Being, here and now.
For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
In what do we move and have our being?
What words do the Bible writers use for Consciousness and Awareness?
All that we call "this world" is known by us in Awareness, filtered / interpreted / limited by our conditioning and believes.
Who am I?
"I AM" -- Consciousness -- ... not the person we believe ourselves to be.
The veil that separates us from God is our own fascination with the objects in our mind; but we rarely examine the nature of our mind.
What is our natural state? How does our seeking and longing deprive us from seeing the generosity, beauty and wisdom of what already eternally IS?