Interesting.

From a neato-sci-fi kind of perspective, I find this pretty appealing. I think there have been a couple of short stories based on this premise. The one that comes to mind right now is one in which a scientist discovers a way to generate a force field that will completely protect entire cities from nuclear weapons. The problem is that as he's finishing his work, he develops a completely irrational and overwhelming desire to commit suicide...

Long story short... humans had been programmed by some higher species. Part of the "experiment" was that the higher species had the option to exterminate humanity by causing a nuclear war. This scientist was going down intellectually forbidden paths (ending the alien's ability to exterminate us) and so he had triggered a self-destruct button in his own brain, so to speak.

Anyway, like I said, the whole concept is appealing from a geek perspective, and it certainly makes more sense than a supernatural god, but without any evidence that this is so, I have to just regard it as a fun story.