As always, an interesting show, Bob. However, the notion that the existence of some kind of supreme daddy figure could not be proved or disproved seems a little strange to me. Contemporary atheists such as Dawkins and Hitchens deny the claim about the existence of god precisely because nothing that reasonable people consider evidence can be mounted for it. Those are the same reasons we don't believe in unicorns, Metropolis, or dragons.
Their place in collective consciousness is undeniable, but a claim about the existence of unicorns isn't unprovable. Produce a unicorn, and there they are (see for instance the discovery of black swans in Australia in 1697). There is no castle of the gods on Olympus, because we've been there and looked at it. The claims of religion grow ever more grandiose in response (this is an oversimplification, there are also sound psychological reasons for their evolution). Studies are done with reasonable frequency to test these claims, such as the power of prayer (H. Benson et al., "Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients", American Heart Journal 151:4, 2006, 934-42).
I think it would be a great idea to acknowledge some the paragons we see in nerd culture as more than adequate examples of things we would like to see in the real world, and the place of characters like Superman in a modern mythology (for example, the success of the Clan of the Fiery Cross story of the Superman radio show in 1946, wherein Superman takes on the Ku Klux Klan). But deifying them, having a first church of Spiderman or somesuch seems a little silly. It doesn't appear to be necessary to deify something to agree that the ideas are good, and what constitutes good ideas can be reasoned out in terms of best practice. Batman acts out of trauma, Spiderman out of guilt, but Superman out of love. Which of these is best? Seems pretty straightforward, without the need to involve ideas like worship or deification.
Although, if Alex Ross painted the ceiling of the Hall of Spiderman in Queens, which reminded us of all of the important lessons we could learn from Spiderman, I'd totally show up.
Twenty-three skidoo.