then what are your views on pantheism and/or monism?  it's well known among classics scholars (it was one of my majors) that at least by the time of the apogee of greek civilization, very few greeks probably believed their myths literally but held them as representations (though not entirely in the sense of what we would call "fairy tales&quot of higher truths and that we are actually all "in god."  there is also the parallel example of brahman in hinduism.

in fact, is this in substance any different from the typical atheist's position that it is the universe that is (in some sense) infinite and "creates" through observable means?  is it absolutely necessary to the atheist position that this universe have no consciousness of its own?