“The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).
Stephen Charnock: If there were not this sentiment of a Deity, no man would ever have made an image of a piece of wood, worshipped it, prayed to it, and said, “Deliver me, for thou art my God…”They applied a general notion to a particular image. The difference is in the manner, and immediate object of worship, not in the formal ground of worship. The worship sprung from a true principle, though it was not applied to a right object: while they were rational creatures, they could not deface the notion; yet while they were corrupt creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle. A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight; but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a ditch. No man would be imposed upon to take a Bristol stone instead of a diamond, if he did not know that there were such things as diamonds in the world: nor any man spread forth his hands to an idol, if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity. Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to, yet in both, the natural sentiment of a God is evidenced; all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this stock, since they would multiply gods rather than deny a Deity.
Clay Miller: Universally, all cultures worship. This is because there is a notion of a God. Richard Dawkins, when asked, what if he was wrong about there not being a God, arrogantly and condescendingly retorted, “what if there is a tooth fairy?” So in honor of Mr Dawkins, I will use the tooth fairy to make a quick point. There is not a universal notion of a tooth fairy. If there were a universal notion of a tooth fairy, then we probably would have ourselves a tooth fairy. But because the tooth fairy is made up, like the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, etc…it does not have the history of being a universal belief in all places and all times. God is evident, and because He is evident, all cultures of all times have tried to worship some form of deity. Though misapplied, the worship exists everywhere because man has always had the notion of a deity.
The Bible calls us blind in our natures. This is why we know there is a God, yet miss going to Him, but rather fall into idolatry…unless He Himself opens our eyes to see. If we are offered a rock crystal instead of a diamond, we would choose the diamond because we know the value of diamonds. If we did not know the value of diamonds it would not matter to us. Why do we make that choice? We know of diamonds and ideas have consequences. So too, we would choose some sort of worship if we did not have the notion that there was something, Someone, bigger than us. Even the atheist fights the idea of God. He can give reasons why he does it, but he cannot deny he knows of the notion of a deity, nor can anyone with mental capacity to think.
