As long as you are willing to attribute the outright impossible features of leprechauns to the growth of a story in the telling, I'd be willing to consider their current or past existence. I'd still think it was a distinct waste of time to go looking for them, and if I were to look for them, I wouldn't expect to find something identical to the mythical creature or the popular icon, but any statement of mine about the non-existence of leprechauns absent a disclaimer would be a statement of faith and thus religious in nature. A religious belief can be completely absent gods or the supernatural. It is merely any belief taken upon faith. We each hold many religious beliefs in our lives, many through laziness, many others because we are wired to come to conclusions in absence of evidence, it is a demonstrable survival trait. Eric's wording was poor, and in the end, he may well not agree with my analysis, but that is how intention (both in the initial post and in his follow up postings.)