"But what it is is an example of how there are other ways of conceiving of what God is than just the simplistic straw man model that Dawkins knocks down with such confidence."

This individual was saying that chemical reactions created the "I" and why couldn't more complex reactions create a more complex "I"? My answer is that I don't know but the idea that god is simply a more complex human being or a superhuman is not tenable because god cannot be made of matter and yet be above it its pitfalls, shortcomings and temptations. But this person may have been implying that more complex reactions through perhaps evolutionary processes could someday create super "I". That I can buy. The person wasn't clear on what he was getting at.

"It also serves as a starting point from which one can realize that in fact the universe is conscious of itself.

We are not seperate from the universe but mere atoms within it.

It follows that if we are a conscious part of the universe, then the universe is conscious."

I think it much more likely that the universe is unconscious and dreaming reality and we are all bit players in the dream and therefore all part of the same dreamer. We are an "I" in the midst of a universe but also a consciousness in which the entire universe in contained. Consciousness is learning to become conscious by dreaming itself in myriad roles (myriad "I"s) of which you play one and "I" play another. Someday the Dreamer will wake up and there will be no more need for these roles.