"Consider the rise of Man and human intelligence. Did that coincide with the concept or the awareness of God? Where ever the archeological traces of Man are there is an indication that he worshipped something. Coincidence? I think not."

Oh, I agree! No coincidence at all! As soon as humans could use their developing brains to wonder & ask questions like "why?" and "how?", they applied anthropomorphic concepts to what they saw. THEY 'did things' to make, break, kill, change and otherwise affect their environment, so it seemed likely that something 'did something' to make...(and break and kill..etc.) THEM! Since they couldn't 'see' exactly what it was, imagination supplied all sorts of fascinating variations.
All this is encompassed in the old paraphrase "In the beginning, Man created God in his own image".

Now as to whether he was right or not....even in principle... we just can't say. Some say "the universe is so enormously complicated, I can't imagine it being created totally by random processes."....but, *shrug*, it is also easy to say "...the universe is so enormously complicated, I can't imagine it being created by concious plan, but ONLY by random, but defined and theoretically predictable, physical processes."

My point is...whichever you 'choose', it is probably because of premises you already hold BEFORE you confront the question. The actual answer may be in principle unknowable, and since *I* can't get a grasp on it, I 'choose' not to 'believe' what seems like anthropomorphic guessing....especially when I read history and dwell on the myriad forms this guessing has taken.

Now, I get warnings that I am taking a huge chance NOT believing in some specific manifestation of these guesses, but I have this bit or reasoning that I can't escape...IF some all-powerful Being wants me to behave in certain ways, 'it', being all-powerful, could certainly clarify the matter better than old stories in dubious translations of arbitrary collections of old documents. To those who tell me that the matter HAS been adequately clarified, I reply..."well, you have accepted the very premises that I see as just one of the guesses...so..."

Still....I do see why some form of belief IS so easy and comforting....and to some, not having an **ANSWER**--some answer -- is frustrating and unacceptable. For myself, I don't require all questions to BE answerable....just the process of asking and wondering and exploring is satisfaction enough......and who knows?, maybe the horse WILL sing! (old joke/parable)