[Ghoulish Delight]

Yes and no.

In the end, all I really believe is that some force must have created the universe, the nature of which we can never know.

But I do entertain a murky belief that it's some manner of conscious being with some form of stake in things. But it's mostly a mental exercise. My current model of the universe that I like to ponder is that we're characters in a video game, and God is the programmer. God "controls" what we do in-so-much as he has defined how the system works, but one the game starts running, if it's sufficiently complex, even the programmer can't predict exactly how it will play out. That model gives easy answers to questions like "Can God create a rock so big that he can't lift it?" Can a video game programmer? The answer is...the question doesn't make sense, God is completely outside of this universe.

Then, if I continue the analogy, Jesus (and here I'm really straying from my actual core beliefs...like I said, mental exercise) would be the player character. Still constrainted by the "reality" of the created universe, but posessed with certain knowledge and power beyond the non-player characters (i.e., mere mortals). And a player character is, in some ways, an extension of the creator himself, while not actually being the creator.

Of course, while God would, once the universe was programmed, not have the ability to directly alter the course of things (it's not like programmers can change a game in the middle of playing it), what good programmer doesn't build in a few cheat codes (i.e. miracles)?

So us Jews are just waiting for the day that Elijah finds himself a 1-up mushroom.