"The writer of the Tao Te Ching only mentions the divine a couple of times, in passing, as if not at all convinced of their existence. He certainly doesn't give them a significant role in the universe he describes." -- Stefan Stenudd
Perhaps no Taoist would ever put it quite so bluntly as I will, but the Tao (1) existed before the gods existed, (2) has nothing to do with the gods other than the Tao might (or might not) be responsible for determining the nature of the gods, and (3) is in some special Taoist sense, superior to the gods.
I base my understanding of the relationship between the Tao and the gods mostly on the work and scholarship of Stefan Stenudd, Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall, and Stephen Mitchell. But I also threw darts at a cork board and flipped coins to arrive at my views.
As I see it, the author of the Tao Te Ching almost certainly was a mystic whose "Tao" is her or his word for the "reality" they encountered during one or more mystical experiences. Most mystics -- but not all -- call that reality "god". Obvious, the author of the Tao Te Ching does not.
(By "reality", I mean that which appears real to the mystic.)
So what is you take on it? Is the Tao god? Or is the Tao not god? And what is the relationship between the Tao and god?
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Now, a futile effort to make it up to you for another insufferably opinionated thread.