In Western Civilization, since 500 B. C., there has never existed a person who actually thought that the entire Universe was somehow intentionally made by some sort of conscious omnipotent entity, and there has never existed a person who thought there's ever existed a person who actually thought this. Everyone knows this, and everyone knows that everyone knows this. I mean, obviously.
If I can switch to a different subject, there exist subdivisions of society, small groups of people, where within each group, the traditions, social expectations and taboos, are very different from the entire population. Examples include nudists, vegetarians, the Flat Earth Society, the Tycho Brahe Society (who say the Earth revolves around the Sun), and religions. There is, for instance, a group of men who performed at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. They shave their heads, cover their bodies with white powder, and hang upside-down nude from skyscrapers. If you do this, you're a member of their group. If not not. If you say the words, "The Earth is Flat", you're a member of the Flat Earth Society. If not not. The words recited by members of religions are far stranger, but it's irrelevant what words they choose to recite. Why would someone choose to be a member of a small group of people whose customs are very different from general society? There are people who aren't members of any group. They don't hang out with family, friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors, or former classmates. At the same time, they very much want to be a member of a group of people. They feel lonely. They want to be accepted. They want to belong to a group. They want people to say, "We like you". Such individuals can always, if nothing else, become a member of one of these small groups with very unusual traditions. They'll accept anyone who follows their traditions. If all you have to do is recite certain words and you're in, such people would consider it worth it. This is why people joined the Branch Davidians or any religion. Also, people whose parents were members of such a group were raised to be a member, meaning follow their customs. Since they've always been a member of the group, they feel this is their group of people. If they weren't a member of this group, they wouldn't be a member of any group. If they want to be a member of a group of people, they wouldn't leave it, so they would continue with the customs such as reciting the words.
Some people say that religious people pretend to be unaware of what I said in the first paragraph. That's ridiculous. There's never existed a person who tried to make other people think that they were unaware of this. If hypothetically there were to exist such a person, they would have a 100% chance of failure, since no one could imagine such a person existing. Aside from that, no one's ever attempted that. There's never existed a person who tried to make other people think that they were unaware of what I said in the beginning. There's never existed a person who pretended to not know this. The fact they happen to recite the words they do merely defines their group, or determines who is in their group.
There are subdivisions of society which have different social expectations or taboos which define their group. For religions, if you recite certain sets of words, among other things, you're in and if not not. The words themselves just happen to be what they are. They could be anything for what difference it would make. It just happens that words recited by members of religions include an admission that they don't actually think that what they're saying is true. It's irrelevant whether or not their recitations did contain such an admission. For instance, the words recited by members of the Flat Earth Society do not contain such an admission. However, it just happens that the words recited by members of religions do contain this. They frequently make reference to the things they say originating within themselves. They say "look within yourself". They flat out admit that this stuff originates within yourself. This isn't me saying this. This is they themselves saying this. It just happens that the words they recite contain an admission that these ideas are derived entirely within yourself, or that they're just making it up. I repeat that the customs that define a group could be anything, and you could have a group whose members recite any pre-established set of words. It's irrelevant whether or not the words contain such an admission, but it just happens that for religions, it does contain this admission.
It's been 2500 years since there existed a person in the western world who actually thought gods were actual physical creatures that actually existed in real life. In Western Civilization since 500 B. C., there has never existed a person who actually thought that not just the Earth, the Solar System, the Galaxy, or the Local Group of galaxies, but actually the entire infinite expanse of the entire infinite Universe, was somehow intentionally deliberately made by some sort of giant omnipotent omniscient conscious entity that existed before and lives outside of the rest of the Universe. There has never existed a person who thought that there has ever existed a person who thought this. There is no one who could imagine a person actually thinking this. Everyone knows this, and everyone knows that everyone knows this. I mean, obviously.
If someone said that they thought aliens visited the Earth, they would be dismissed as insane. What if someone said that an alien not only visited the Earth, but actually made the Earth? What if they went on to say that the alien not only made the Earth, but made Mars, Jupiter, and all of the other planets in the Solar System? What if they went on to say that a single giant alien made not just this solar system, but the entire Milky Way, and not just this galaxy, but the Andromeda Galaxy and all the other galaxies? What if they went on to say that this giant creature somehow deliberately made the entire infinite Universe? There are people who say this. If someone who says merely that aliens visited the Earth is dismissed as a nut, then why are the people who say make this vastly more bizarre grandiose claim not dismissed as nuts? The reason is because someone could imagine someone actually thinking the first claim but no one could imagine a person actually thinking the second claim. It is universally understood that when someone says the second thing, of course they don't actually think it, and that's why they're not tossed in mental hospitals.
If someone said an alien made the Face on Mars, you'd think they were crazy. What if someone said an alien made not just the Face on Mars but actually constructed the entire planet Mars itself? What if they went on to say that this being not only singlehandly made the planet Mars, but made the Earth, the Horsehead Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and in fact the entire infinite expanse of the entire infinite Universe? Lots of people actually do say this bizarre thing but they are not thought of as crazy, unlike people who make a far less outrageous claim, and the reason is because everyone knows they don't actually think that. No one could imagine a person actually thinking that. Everyone knows this. This is universally understood.
Do you watch Star Trek? What if on Star Trek, it was revealed that Q had made the Earth? What if they said that Q not only made the Earth, he made Earth's Solar System, he made Vulcan's solar system, he made the Alpha Quadrant, he made the entire Galaxy, and not only that, but he made the entire Universe itself? The fans of the show would be furious because it would be so ludicrous, and so far-fetched by even Star Trek standards, that it would ruin the show.
Everyone knows this. Everyone knows that everyone knows this. No one could imagine a person not knowing this. It was universally understood. It is so universally understood, it's never stated. Why would you state something that everyone knows, and everyone knows that everyone knows? To state it would be to imply that there might exist a person who didn't know it. Therefore, it's never stated. I'm stating it anyway. Therefore I'm doing something unusual. Therefore some people might react to me saying this the way they would react to anyone doing something unusual. However, of course the people knew it before they read it. I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know. You don't need for me to tell you this. You know this.
People do admit that no one actually thinks this by using the word "believe". If you actually thought something existed, you would not refer to it by using the words "believe in", "belief", "magic", "supernatural", "paranormal", "metaphysical", "spiritual", or "miracle". These are code words to signal that you are referring to something fictional, that doesn't exist. For instance, someone might say they "believe in" ESP because it's fiction. It doesn't exist. No one would say they "believe in" X-rays because they actually exist. Even if something doesn't exist, if you thought it existed, you wouldn't use these code words. In reality, there is no such thing as cold fusion. However, the two chemists in Utah who claimed that they discovered it, sincerely genuinely thought, erroneously, that it was real. Therefore they would not have described it as a "miracle", or "spiritual". They would not have said they "believe in" cold fusion, because they thought it was real. Of course, today someone might say they "believe in" cold fusion because it's been proven to be not real.
This raises the question, why do people say these words? They are not pretending to think this, because they are not trying to make other people think that they think this, because no one could imagine a person actually thinking this. Why do they say these words? All social groups have social expectations and taboos. In general society, there is a taboo against public nudity. Among nudists, there is a taboo against wearing clothes. The Flat Earth Society has a social expectation to say the Earth is flat. Obviously, no one could imagine a person actually thinking the Earth really was flat in real life. Saying these words is simply a custom of their group. If they don't say them, they are violating a social taboo of their social group. Other groups of people, such as Christians, have a social expectation to say words far more bizarre than the words recited by members of the Flat Earth Society. Reciting these words is one of the customs that defines their group. They have a social expectation to say these words, and a social taboo against not saying these words. Therefore they say the words they say. That's all there is to it.
It would be possible for an ignorant person to read “A Tale of Two Cities” and think it was nonfiction. It would be possible for an ignorant person to read “War and Peace”, and think it was nonfiction. Obviously, it would not be possible for an ignorant person to read “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, and think it was nonfiction, since there is magic in the story. It would not be possible for someone to read “Lord of the Rings”, and think it was nonfiction, since it contains magic. It would not be possible for a person to read the Bible, and think it was nonfiction since it contains magic.
Magic is defined as the impossible, and obviously if a work of fiction admits that it contains the impossible, then it would not be possible for a person to think it was nonfiction. If a work of fiction did not contain the impossible, then it would be possible for an ignorant person to think it was true. If a work of fiction contained the impossible but did not admit that it contained the impossible, then it might be possible for a gullible person to think that it was true. However, if a work of fiction not only contained the impossible, but also contained the self-admission that it contained the impossible, meaning it openly admitted that the story contained magic, then it would not be possible for a person, no matter how ignorant or gullible, to think that the work of fiction, including it’s own self-admission that it contained the impossible, was true.
You could have a work of nonfiction, such as a history book. You could have a work of fiction that did not contain magic, such as “A Tale of Two Cities” or “War and Peace”. In that case, it would be possible for an ignorant person to think they were nonfiction. You could have a work of fiction that contains magic, meaning the impossible, but does not admit that it contains magic. This is like science-fiction or UFO belief. In reality, they contain magic, since they contain utterly impossible things, but they don’t admit that it’s magic. For instance, in Star Trek, when they transport from the ship to a planet’s surface, or in typical UFO stories, where the aliens presumably travel faster than light in order to travel from their planet to our planet over time scales shorter than millennia, that’s as utterly impossible as the magic in “A Christmas Carol”, “Lord of the Rings”, or Christianity. However, they don’t admit that it’s magic. In Star Trek, the transporter isn’t supposed to be magic. UFO enthusiasts become indignant if you point out that it’s magic. In other words, if the work of fiction contains magic but does not admit that it contains magic, then a person who is profoundly ignorant of science could think it was true.
However, if a work of fiction not only contains magic, but also openly admits that it contains magic, then the work of fiction contains within it the self-admission that it contains the impossible. In that case, no person, no matter how ignorant, could think that the fiction, including its own self-admission that it’s impossible, was true. Therefore, it would be physically impossible for there to exist a person who thought that the work of fantasy was true. This is the case for any work of fantasy that admits that it contains magic, such as Greek Mythology, Christianity, King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, Santa Claus, etc.
Let me illustrate this difference with a few examples. Bigfoot enthusiasts fall into two camps. The first says that Bigfoot is an actual physical biological creature, some undiscovered living species of hominoid, perhaps Austalopithecus africanus, that somehow managed to avoid detection. These people are actually suggesting that it’s a physical creature that actually exists in real life. They’re dead wrong, of course, but nonetheless, the point being that they are actually suggesting it’s real. In contrast, you have second camp of Bigfoot fans, who focus on the Yeti of the Himalayas, and describe it as a supernatural creature with magic powers. It can change its shape. It can read your mind. It can turn invisible. It can instantly teleport from one location to another location. In other words, they are NOT suggesting it’s an actual creature that exists, but rather they are describing a supernatural creature, that you might “believe in” as a religion.
With hypnosis or meditation, you can describe it as a spiritual thing, admitting it’s not real, or you could alternatively claim it has scientific basis, which is a lie of course, thereby pretending it’s real. Someone could recite the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, where the magic Ark magically held two of every single species of animal on Earth, while the entire Earth was magically flooded for 40 days to punish humanity. Alternatively, some crackpot could search the mountains of Turkey for the remains of an actual physical boat which he claims held the private royal zoo of a Babylonian king trying to save it from the flooding of the Euphrates River. Of course, that’s total nonsense, but do you see how the second guy is making a claim of something real?
You can take some works of fiction that traditionally admit they contain magic, and try to come up with a version that does not admit this. With ghosts, it’s normally admitted that they are magic. However, you could come up with some crackpot pseudoscience explanation, saying the electrochemical impulses in the neurons leave some sort of imprint on the ether that pervades all of space, and this pattern of impulses, which is your consciousness, somehow continues to exist without the body. I’ve never heard a paranormal researcher claim that but you could come up with such a thing. However, there are some works of fantasy in which the admission that it contains magic is so intrinsic to the thing itself, that you can’t come up with a version that doesn’t admit it contains magic. You can’t come up with a version of witchcraft that doesn’t admit that it contains magic, because the whole idea is that they cast spells and have magic powers. Similarly, faeries are supposed to be supernatural creatures, and that is so intrinsic to the idea of faeries, that you can’t come up with a version where they are supposed to be an undiscovered species of miniscule humanoid. In these cases, it would not be possible to come up with any version for which it would be possible for any person, no matter how ignorant, to think was true.
Out of all the works of fantasy ever invented by humans, the single most magic supernatural thing ever invented was the Judeo-Christian God. This is the most supernatural magical thing ever invented, meaning the most admittedly utterly impossible thing ever imagined, and where it admits this more than any other work of fantasy, going so far as to claim supernatural omnipotence. In other words, it is more utterly impossible for a person to think the Judeo-Christian God was real than any other magic thing in any other work of fantasy ever invented in the history of the world.
There are several ways of enjoying a work of fantasy. You could read a fantasy novel. You could watch a fantasy movie or TV show. If you want to get more into it then that, you could read a pick-your-own adventure book, or play a computer game. If you want to get even more into it then that, you could play a role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons. This is where you enjoy imagining that you are in a fantasy world. If you want to get even more into it then that, the final step is to “believe in” it as a form of occult or religion. This is the same as playing a role-playing game except you do it 24 hours a day. Dungeons and Dragons players imagine themselves in a fantasy world for a few hours each day. If you “believe in” the work of fantasy, as the occult or a religion, then you are imagining yourself in a fantasy world 24 hours a day. Christianity falls into this category. Of course, Christians know it’s fiction in the same way that Dungeons and Dragons players or Lord of the Rings fans know it’s fiction.