Philosophies of Deity and Cosmology in World-Building

The subject of how gods and the ideas of gods are treated in the context of fictional worlds really intrigues me, but I think that when the subject of gods in speculative fiction is broached, the real meat of the discussion tends to get shoved to the wayside. There is much talk of what the gods of this world are, who worships whom, and so forth, but there is little discussion of the meaningful implications of, say, conflicting cosmologies between religions that are both to some degree "proven," or what being a god (or God?) actually means. So let's talk about it.

Setting One: God (El-Elyon The Most High, oldest name on record for the Semite concept) is creator of the universe (kind of, there would be no existence whatsoever without God but it is not actually behind every little last thing. It is a non linear, non limited being that does not know the future in it self so much as it knows every possible outcome and will not be surprised by any of them. (It can be angered though, which lends the question of why it lets things happen if it knows it will not like them)

God (gods), are open to interpretation but God itself, only uses the term sardonically (in reference to a group of beings it appointed to help run the first human city and ended up running it into the ground as well as in reference to human beings who got too cocky) or sarcastically (you can call those gods if you want but it does not look like much to me). The general cosmology works off the assumption that the Jewish Tanakh and The Christian New Testament actually happened, they are accurate to some degree and are probably the most accurate In-Universe cosmologies...but they still did not get everything 100% accurate (The universe as we know it is 14 billion years old as so, our understanding of the fossil record is mostly accurate, ect) they do not have all the answers (exactly why was genocide Joshua's best course of action?) and there are still multiple interpretations to be taken from them (This phrase clearly means a long time, not forever! No, the sinners will burn FOREVER!)

Religion (at this stage, it has at times been more important) is largely superfluous. It can help no doubt but if you are honestly loving your neighbor as yourself, both in thought and action you are living right. Everything will eventually find paradise with God, the only question is how long is it going to take. (As a being to whom time means a whole lot less to, it might take some people a long time. It is possible that God might eventually destroy a soul outright but it has not happened yet)

Setting Two: Religions in general are...dubious. There is more contemporary proof for concepts such as miracles than historical evidence for the claims of religions that started thousands of years ago. Yet, there is evidence for health benefits through certain austerities, meditations and mindsets. There are some genuine prophecies that have come true, to an extent and past happenings no one can adequately explain. There is also a growing doubt in the general public over reliability of human perception. (There is no particular evidence for any religion anymore than real life but religious characters have various reasons for keeping their faith).

Setting Three: God is the soul of the universe, nothing exists apart from it. Gods (gods) are more in tune with what unifies us, they are active universal functions though there are varying degrees of gods. The greatest that most people in this current state of being can perceive is Trimurti and directly below it, Deva. (Though the gods the story focuses on are in neither category). In theory, religion should be about reflecting on the nature of the cosmos, God and self, hopefully an enlightening experience that inspires one to do good works of love for all...in practice...this usually does not happen. 'gods' even get it wrong sometimes. Sometimes very wrong. But the enlightened know that ultimately the God will never let things get too bad, the universe will ultimately drift back to a decent existence.

Those are the only ones I think might get into the meat.

D&D's Deities & Demigods, Exalted, and Scion have some interesting ideas on how being a god and pantheons work in-universe, they even cover conflicts between religions. Discworld has some fun ideas floating about for it's gods, for example: Om in Small Gods. American Gods and the idea that different versions of the same god (somehow) exist based on different land-masses & cultures confused me. Errant Story had three gods (one fake and two not) playing a large part of the plot. The Elder Scrolls has the Walking Ways, 6 methods to achieve divinity, one of them is "Chim"; and characters who took that path can be met in some games.

I also like reading Reality Warper fiction and how it tackles sandbox problems that could be faced by deities. Such as; are Catch22 Dilemmas even possible or are they so common that everyone could warp reality at some point? Is boredom a depressing cloud hanging over everything or could you get trapped in perpetual distraction? How do two warpers affect each-other? Can bystanders tell the difference between a warper and an illusionist? Etc. etc.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything trope covers a lot of situations as well.

Real Life has some great resources for fictional deities. Some actual religions, like Buddhism and Gnosticism, have divine beings at less-than-ultimate positions and as such they can provide a downwards perspective of them, rather than the usual. Cargo Cults, if it's known what they started with, can offer insight into how Gossip Evolution affects religion and culture; like how we don't call Wednesday "Odin's Day" or Thursday "Thor's Day" or even worship them (for the most part). And for sci-fi stories, Sufficiently Advanced Alien Ancient Astronauts are a starting point.