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It would have been more interesting if this question had been framed as "Is man a creation of God or are gods a creation of man". I suspect that many of the respondents are of the belief that their God created man but that all other gods are creations of mankind.

This thought brings me to the first important point to note about religious belief, namely that it began with belief in multiple deities. Whether you look to the ancient European civilizations or to the Aztecs, Incas, or Native American tribes, they all had one thing in common. They looked to the skies and they determined that the sun and the wind and all other things that they couldn't explain must be the result of higher powers. To gain favor with these deities, these early peoples built temples, offered prayers, and made sacrifices.

Modern humans might look back on our ancestors' early religious beliefs as bizarre and/or immoral but that is to judge them based upon twenty-first century morals and scientific knowledge. What is clear is that this polytheistic belief structure slowly died out, with most populations moving towards a belief structure that favors one deity as the supreme being and that doesn't countenance the presence of other gods. Many polytheistic religions were already part way towards this outcome, as they held one or two gods in higher esteem than the pantheon of other deities.

Of course, the question of whether God exists and, if so, whether he created our species is one that cannot categorically be answered by science. There is no hard scientific proof that points to the existence of any gods but this does not mean that scientists can conclude that gods do not exist. Religious belief is a matter of faith. It consists of believing that there are supernatural powers that are beyond the influence of normal laws of physics. Science deals with what can be observed (or at least predicted using mathematical equations) but proving the existence of deities lies beyond its boundaries.

What science has done, however, is to point out the flaws of taking a literal interpretation of every line that appears in a religious text. If we look at the Christian faith, for example, the Bible was written (in many cases) years after the events that are described, by second hand sources, and the texts were then subject to a series of translations over many generations with all the inaccuracies that human fallibility can lead to in such circumstances. That's why most moderate (and rational) Christians

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