And yet for centuries faith in, and questions about, the existence of God have persisted.
People believe in gods, University of Otago researchers say, because they are motivated to.
Investigating the so-called ''Mickey Mouse problem'', the Department of Psychology's Dr Thomas Swan, along with Prof Jamin Halberstadt, surveyed more than 300 people in an attempt to find out what distinguishes people's beliefs in gods and fictional supernatural beings, like Mickey Mouse or Superman.
Dr Swan, who studies experimental social psychology with a focus on religion, has now published his account of the motivational account of religious belief formation in the journal PLOS ONE.
A statement from the university said Dr Swan had developed a ''god template'' that distinguishes religious and fictional supernatural beings by looking into the traits people connect with each.
Dr Swan's research subjects were asked to invent religious or fictional supernatural beings, and then to provide examples of each as a part of a larger project he is undertaking to develop ''an overall cognitive motivational model of religious belief''.
The attributes each were seen to possess, Dr Swan said, separated gods and superheroes.
Mind-based abilities, a certain degree of ambiguity, and being benevolent, but ambivalent, were all traits survey respondents ascribed to gods, whereas they were more likely to say fictional super-beings had supernatural physical abilities - like super-strength, flying, or outrunning a speeding bullet.
''Gods tended to be given more abilities like pre-cognition and omniscience - and reading minds,'' Dr Swan said.
But importantly gods had the power to comfort us, having both ''the carrot and the stick''.
Since gods were ambivalent, rituals were an important part in the belief. Rituals required an act of faith and performing them helped confirm a belief in a god.
Gods were also described in more ambiguous ways.
''I suppose the most famous [example] is that 'god works in mysterious ways' - how ambiguous is that?
''You can find any interpretation you want.''
