Option 1 is the Scientific Method.

Option 2 is the Theology

Option 4 is I believe the Spinoza hypothesis. Spinoza was an Italian philosopher, (i am paraphrasing this) who equated God to a watchmaker. The watchmaker only needs to make the watch once, and although you, as the wearer of the watch, might never have met, seen, or known the watchmaker, the watchmaker exists by the evidence of the watch.

Interestingly, cultural evidence is always being adapted to explain God. Spinoza, who lived during the mechanical age, explained and philosophized God using cultural objects. And perhaps farther back in time, mythology and oral history was used extensively to explain God (I have the Babylonian and sumerian creation mythology, gilgamesh, the Hebrew oral mythologies, etc, in mind). And perhaps today, there's quite a bit of scientific and psuedo scientific thought being incorporated into the "language" of explaining God.

As for Option 3: I think you'll find there is a very wide and varied number of philosophies all bound up here.

Calvin