Hinduism has many philosophical approach. We have seen a glimpse of atheism See In Advaita philosophy propounded by Shankara all souls are a virtual copy of god. 
So there is is no difference between god and us. The word Advaita itself means no two or dual hence god and us are same. Ofcourse we are under delusion and need to realise this.Such a realised person is known as stithapragnya (स्थितप्रज्ञ). What is the difference between such realised soul and us? There is no difference that is what we have to realise. But such a nihilistic and unbounded philosophy was difficult to counter and also difficult to practice. Hence many seers compromised and came up with different versions. Amongst them is 
Ramanuja who expounded Vishishtadvaitam ( more…)whereas, though we are part of god we need to seek and pray to god to achieve godhood. This also bifurcated into to 2 sects known as Vadakalai and Thengalai ( See.).Here the difference is God if considered as mother then the gods behaviour could be either like that of a monkey or a cat. The difference is that Cat takes of child even if it does nothing. Whereas in the case of monkey, the kid has to come and hug the mother to be protected. Once the kid hugs the the mother then the protection is total.So now decide do you want to pray or not.
मार्जारक किशोर न्यायं
मर्कट किशोर न्यायं
Understanding Ramayana 