What do mermaids and God have in common?

As I noted in my last Good Reads/Random Cool Sites post, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put up a web page debunking the existence of mermaids (apparently because they'd actually received some serious inquiries about the subject).

Anyway, something about the last paragraph of the NOAA page especially struck me:

"But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That's a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists."

That would apply equally well to God:

But are gods real? No evidence of gods has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all peoples? That's a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.

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