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[DesignSmith]

In Rene Descartes Treatise on Reason, one of the lines of thought is that God must exist because a man would not randomly imagine that there was a more perfect being than human kind without some example of its evidence.  And if that example comes from a real being, it follows that God must be there.  (in some form)

Which sort of points to the question, Which came first God, or our belief in God?

Remember how much more powerful it sounds when just 2 voices are joined in a folk song or prayer.  Also consider that the will to get over an illness seems to have some effect and that the `placebo effect' has been well documented and is a routine part of medical trials.
Multiply both of those effects by the billions of believers.

Now, does God exist because of our belief or in spite of it? 
Does our believing at least make him even more powerful?  (like the sound from a band or chorus)

[DesignSmith]

Interesting observation:

In my career I have come across 3 individuals who are quite atheistic, largely in part to bad or overbearing experiences with religion when young.
However, 2 of them, while claiming to be quite agnostic if not atheist, behave in the most virtuous manners.
Chivalrous to a fault,  they are more courteous and caring toward their fellows by their deeds, than most whom would claim to be faithful or religious.

Why?
What restrains them from putting their own interests first at all times?

Is it really a lack of belief that causes them to denounce it, or merely fear of having it be misplaced? 
Or not being able to correctly measure it, do they consider it to somehow fall short, and thus discount it even further still? 
(following a downward spiral that they think leads to no faith at all)

[DesignSmith]

Reading and listening to some of the writings of Stephen Hawkings and similar scientists it was interesting to find that some are careful about their theories as to still allow for the possibility of a `creator'.

Which sort of lead down an odd train of thought...

What if God, and the universe (a la big bang) were one in the same?
What if we had merely taken the original statement of "in his image" too literally? 
We are comprised of organs, made of cells, that host much smaller life forms than ourselves; just as the universe is comprised of galaxies and solar systems made of planets hosting life forms such as humans.

What if the `dark matter' or `dark energy' that science can not yet detect, but must be there to balance out the physics of the universe as we observe it, is the `Holy Spirit'?
Which is everywhere and runs through everything even though we can not see it.

Perhaps the question of other intelligent life out there is the wrong question.  In our scale from amoeba to human we are looking at the wrong things.  It is not biology and intelligence, but awareness that matters.
Awareness of the struggle to biologically `live', awareness of ourselves, awareness of the surroundings including other life and the planets and stars, awareness of the supreme (being, contentiousness, spirit, what have you)

He is with us always because we are living within him.  We are just not fully aware of that yet.