Faith as ontological poetry

That sounds terribly pedantic, I know. Let me explain.

"You are a part of God." Many intelligent people (among them my friend Elena, who inspired this post through her no-nonsense / blank-stare attitude towards spirituality) would think that's a bunch of crap. Now, if you decide that God is just another name for the universe, and you're obviously part of the universe, you're therefore also a part of God. 

"We are God knowing itself." Again, we decide that the universe equals God. We are part of the universe; therefore we are a part of God. We know and perceive things, which are a part of the universe, and therefore part of God. It follows that we are a part of God knowing and perceiving a part of God, i.e. we are God knowing itself.

"God is the reason why the universe exists." Note that I'm not saying that God created the universe! If there is a universe it seems reasonable to hypothesize that there is a reason why it exists, which I craftily decide to call God.

"God is love." The same thing again. Love exists; I choose to think of all the love in the world as a whole and call it God. Love is God, God is love. Any problem? That reminds me that some years ago I came up with the idea that perhaps God was some kind of transpersonal entity that was made up of every individual consciousness, the whole being more than the sum of its parts. I'm sure someone has written about that.

"But why would you choose to call the universe God in the first place? Why not just call it the universe? What is the point of calling things something else?" protested my friend. And then it occurred to me that calling the universe God is doing ontological poetry. You're saying the same thing, only trasmuted by a sleight of hand into something spiritual. Then the universe becomes something you can worship and God becomes tangible. You can take ontological poetic licence as far as you like, and there comes a point where you start dreaming up Shivas, Vishnus and Avalokiteshvaras. Where you draw the line is up to you. I would say that as long as you're aware that what you're doing is poetry you're safe.