nerdvincent .. If you have read any of Einstein's, Jung's ideas about spirituality you will see Spinoza's God in them.. the notion isn't so much that the universe is a being a deity, more that the nature, the natural laws of the universe are God to them.
Its a very pragmatic way of looking @ God, after all what are you referring to when you say God in alarm or gratitude if its not the nature of things ? What else's can you call the great perpetually growing & dieing tapestry of self perpetuating re-creation of life & death but God ?
Natural religion
I agree 100% with Athena that people should not operate under the delusion that everybody thinks God is what they think God is, because this undermines peoples freedom of thought. If a person thinks God is a deity, by rights they should use the name of the deity they have decided is what they refer to when they say God. For Christians this is Yahweh or Jehovah .
We are no longer ruled by the theist church & face being burned for heresy if we state God isn't a deity & more of a pervading theme within reality like
Giordano Bruno in the roman inquisition. The inquisitions are over, we won the war agaisnt scriptural authority over relgious ideas. Time we represented that by retaining our liberty to decide for ourselves what God is..