To me... the disconnect from God comes from Christianity. You are a part of God... you are already connected to God. There is no bad situation or good situation (Don't Judge). There is no heaven or hell (No Judgement).

Here is an example of not judging bad or good situation:

"There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

Everything that seems on the surface to be an evil may be a good in disguise. And everything that seems good on the surface may really be an evil. So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and what misfortune, and thank him that all things turn out for good with those who love him."

You are here to grow spiritually from experiencing life to the fullest or not... but you will still die.
Zero sum gain, if you believe there is nothing more after death.
Everything you gain is from Life experiences and can only be done in this plane of existence. Just like a videogame, you can't take the weapons and money you gained in the game, but you share the experiences (the ups and downs) with your friends you just shot up in the game while laughing about it.

Off the topic- There is a church/religion whom worship, "The Flying Spaghetti Monster." They're called Pastafarians. It's that ridiculous? It's on Google.

Yahweh is useless.

about as much use as a very small planet 50 billion light-years away.

That's a Christian god, you're describing. God of the Universe cannot be defined by man. God doesn't need to be found... LOL. God is already within you. You get to choose the experience/life you want to live. No judgement, it's your choice. Bad things are subjective and shouldn't be judged whether something is bad or good. The reality is we are all going to die. Nothing here is forever. Are you going to experience life and gain wisdom to the fullest or Are you going to operate within the confines of stupid idiotic Christiandom?

That appears to be a question to ask believers, not us heathens.

The paternal purveyor of perpetual punishment? Something/one to strike fear into those in need of being watched … and something/one to condone the dastardly actions of ‘his followers.’ ...the last god standing.. before humanity begins to take responsibility for itself.

I think you'll be hard-pressed to find someone here to take up the mantle for God, but I will say that among believers there's a sense of comfort in the idea of a loving father figure who cares deeply about his children. They sweep the other stuff under the rug, never acknowledging the irrationality of their belief or how horrible parts of their tradition tend to be. They just focus on the sense of love and are comforted by the thought, especially in times of stress and sorrow. That mindset doesn't work for me, but if there is utility in God (or the belief in such) for some people it's that.

We have no use for such creatures.