What forms the concept of godliness without God? If you don't know a good God, you don't know what godliness is, because the word is useless.
But if we were to look at what godliness is, or what we see godliness as; holiness, peace, love, joy, truth, soundness of mind, compassion, humility, grace, forgiveness, and so on, we have the character of Jesus Christ, and if we want those things in our life, seems to me like He is the right place to look.
God as a noun is a very infantile way of looking at things. There doesn't have to be an outside agency for life, life itself is enough. Life is all there is. If one says that life has a creator, then the question arises who created the creator? And if the creator can be there without being created then why can't life? All this jumping from God A created God B to God B created God C is unnecessary. Life just is as it is and it is godly. Scientists are already starting to come to realize that the universe just may be infinite. God as a noun is a very dangerous word responsible for countless atrocities throughout human history. I think that word needs to be ditched and replaced with something more relatable such as godliness.
And yes, Jesus was one of the embodients of those qualities. So was Buddha. So was Ramana Maharshi. There is something to learn from all of them