Why so much Unbelief?
A. The Universal Knowability of God
We can see the unfathomable glory of God in his creation. He has revealed himself through his creation. The created things around us magnificently bear the distinct mark of the creativity of the Creator. These marks are the blueprint, by means God reveals himself. This is the testimony of General Revelation.
The testimony of the Special Revelation is the Word of God that he has given to us. He speaks to us particularly through the logos, the written word of God – the Bible.
Despite these revelations, we do not lack people who discredit the word of God as a myth or the historical Jesus as a legend. In this present age, Christian faith is under fire from the rigorous attack from atheism, whether it is a practical atheist or a theoretical atheist. Practical atheists are those who believe in God but simply live and act like an atheist. Contrarily, the theoretical atheists are those who reject God after examining the issue and find no reason to believe that God exists.
Why, then, so much unbelief in this world? Is it simply because they did not see God’s autograph ever found in anything, anywhere in this world? Is there not a single burden of proof in the world for believing in the existing of God?
No. The problem is not the lack of evidences. There are evidences for the existence of God around them. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” The things made in this world reflect the glory of God.
In addition, the evidence for the existence is locked within them. Romans 1:19, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” God made it plain within us by virtues he made us in the image of God. We are “imago dei”. We bear the reality of God or we have sensus divinitatus or the sense of divine. Thus, human beings are the apex of his creation that this being instinctively or self-consciously senses the existence of God within.
The problem is Moral, not Intellectual.
The evidence is not unclear in itself. It is our moral problem that we do not want or intend to know God. The reason behind rejecting the knowledge of God has to do with human behaviors. Man knows that his moral standards are far better than his own behaviors. He cannot live his own moral standards. Humans willfully refuse to believe the ultimate cause of this creation. They suppress the truth in their natural ability that they cannot will good in this natural state. For example, there is no scientific evidence for the spontaneous generation of life. Lois Pasture (1822 – 1895), a French chemist debunked the then widely accepted myth of spontaneous generation [1]. He simply proved that it does not occur or cannot produce life. Yet, people believe that life comes into being through spontaneous generation, and they suppress the truth simply because they do not want to embrace the truth.
The Problem is Self-perpetuating
Continuous suppression of the truth is the moral degradation. It is giving up of the truth and surrendering to sin and multiplying sins. As a man continuously suppress the truth, his heart also continuously hardens. Eventually, it results to personal and socio-cultural degradation, as the problem becomes self-perpetuating and their unbelief is shared to the generations to come.
Work Citation
CAFNepal 