Just imagine for a second that the search for the gods is a giant science experiment. In this experiment, the various Religions throughout time have been the 'tests' humans have been conducting to try and prove their own god-theory and/or falsify other peoples god-theories; almost like a peer review.
I have to imagine that the first 'test' in this experiment was conducted by cavemen. Which branch of the Homo Species did the first one is likely lost in time, but it is irrelevant to the point at hand. I imagine it likely involved some form of Nature, Sun and/or Moon worship as those are some of the most common themes amoung ancient religions. My guess is that because of this comon theme, many of the subsequent tests in this experiment were variations of, or built upon the results of previous tests. As one was falsified or mostly falsified, people would take the bits that remain, modify the details a bit & have another go at it.
Over millennia, these tests have been refined, reimagined, redone over and over agan. As time marched on, each test has failed or was falsified (i.e. when your nations success is tied to your gods power, and your nation fails, that god-theory has failed and needs revising). Eventually, entirely new tests had to be created because the basic god-theory seemed to be the only possible explanation for the many wonders these primitive people experienced each day, but all the previous tests had failed.
Even to this day, the religious 'scientists' (priests, pastors, shamans, Imams, clerics, etc) continue with these tests. Individuals conduct their own tests by creating personal gods & goddesses that may or may not be based on someone else's test. These are the 'spiritual not religious' or the people that believe in Jesus, but not Religion; nor do they follow the tenets of the bible.
Each 'scientist' tends to lay claim to success based not on real evidence, but simply that their god-theory "sounds better". They also lay claim to have falsified the others tests. This, in effect, falsifys them all. Unfortunately, unlike real modern science, the religious 'scientists' have often killed each other as a means of keeping their test from being falsified.
After tens of thousands of years, not one of the 3000+ known, formal religious tests, nor any of the countless personal tests, have yielded one shred of tangible evidence. It goes without saying that the innumerable religions/god-theories that have been lost to time can be discounted as fully falsified.
If a real scientist were to claim Theory n and conduct 3000+ experiments in an attempt to prove Theory n, most sane people would accept that Theory n is either wrong or completely unprovable. Whichever view you took on Theory n, you surely wouldn't live your life as if Theory n was true.
Lets say Theory n was that drinking elephant pee would double your life span. Would you take a sip knowing that many others have (call them Drinkers) before you and yet none of these Drinkers had an appreciably longer life than non-drinkers? Knowing some have even died from drinking too much?
Of course there would be the Drinkers that survived a car crash at forty, gave credit to the Elephant pee and when they live to eighty, claim it doubled their life. Others would believe this and give it a go. This is because crazy knows no limits, but the vast majority of sane intelligent adults would scoff at the idea as ludicrous.
Now, what if you were taught Theory n was true from childhood? You'd probably be putting elephant piss in your morning coffee instead of cream.
So what does all this tell us about this grand experiment to find the gods? To me, it says the god-theory has been tried, tested, peer-reviewed and in a way, even undergone double-blind studies & yet has failed every time without any solid, conclusive evidence. In all cases, it is people simply presenting their hypothesis on the god-theory & claiming its true. (Trust me, have faith, etc)
Isn't it time we give up on this failed experiment & stop living our lives as if its true?
