Is it rational to believe in God.

'The Big Question', one of my favourite programs has been debating the topic, "is it rational to believe in God". Emotion, culture all play a part in rational decisions but can there ever be a rational answer to some thing so unusual as God. The scope of the question and how we try to rationalise our answers to such huge questions, is as difficult to understand, as is what the religions teach about the creation.
Our mind is the one really marvellous thing which defines us within the animal kingdom.
Belief on the other hand comes from a well, deep within us based, I would suggest on the environment we grew up in and substantiated by the type of questions we all ask ourselves as we progress through life.
The question of how the universe came into being. The question of how mankind came into being and man's so called special relationship with the creator. The question of death and is there a life beyond.
Science has come on in leaps and bounds from the era when the major religions came into being and published their independent manifestos, their books and proclamations based on faith. The argument that science hasn't answered the question of, "what created the beginning", other than the 'big bang', which in religious terms, could also be described as a moment of creation, but is a far cry from the image of Adam & Eve and the creation story.
The God Gap, the gap where gaps in scientific knowledge are characterised as the fault line in the atheists reasoning  has become a stop gap for religion  We can not know the answer, and therefore we turn to the supernatural.
Is religion nothing more than an abstract concept based on the idea of family and a healthy dose of paternalism, with its base now on the margins in areas where science has not presented a rational explanation.
Can the immensity of the universe be explained in an earth bound, parochial story revealed 2000 years ago.