An alternate perspective:
It seems to me that it is entirely plausible that humanity's creation of the concept of dieties, stemming all the way back through our history for sure, could collectively be a metaphore for alien beings who initially seeded life on this planet as something of a horticultural experiment. It would easily explain sightings of gods, people's conversations with gods and the common theistic strain running through almost every major religion (beings greater and more powerful then ourselves, seemingly all knowing). That these beings check in from time to time would only seem logical, within this framework of thinking. That UFO sightings have supposedly increased since the invention of nuclear weapons would possibly indicate increased interest in our backwater planet, contingent upon their notice of our technological advancement. Popular fiction such as Star Trek, Predator and many other genres have touched on concepts like this.
Do I believe this? NO. Though I find it more plausible than the explanations that all other human religions have forwarded to this day. Do I know this? NO. Because I have seen no proof of any of this. I have not seen any disproof either, but that does not mean that we can accept it as fact.
It's just a funny thought really. Though it would explain UFO sightings, and weird reports of UFOs hovering over nuclear missile silos, all the switches coming on all of a sudden, the techs freaking out, and then the launch cancelling itself as suddenly as it began. Like there's not interstellar teenagers out there with daddys saucer that have a perverted sense of humor?
My personal view is that human kind invented the concept of religion to explain things around them that they could not explain otherwise, like lightning, as well as to give themselves some higher purpose to believe in. The advancement of science has shown us that many of these explanations were just wrong, and that many more plausible explanations lay around us. Science also tells us that we do not fully know all the explanations, and possibly never will, because life itself is truly bigger than any of us. I'm fine with accepting that we don't know certain things, or that new data in the future will lead us to better explanations than we have now. That has nothing to do with faith, not in a god or in a lack thereof, and not in science.
Again, believe what you want to, but please don't try to tell me what I belive, or on what basis I make these conclusions.
