Universal belief in God
Humans at all times and in every place believe in the existence of
God.
Prehistoric structures (Stonehenge in England, Hagar Qim and the
Hypogeum in Malta, etc.) all testify to the fact that man is a
"religious animal," distinct and radically different from the
beasts and all living creatures upon the face of the earth. The earliest
civilisations (Sumerians, Egyptians, Incas, etc.) all without exception
has a strong sense of religion; these people all attempted to Re-ligio,
to be bound to their Maker and Superior.
Their earliest records and structures all point to the fact that
religion is not an opium for the people, as Marx mistakenly believed. It
is rather his desperate and unsuccessful attempt to make amends with
God.
Admittedly, he is the Unknown God, as Paul took the hint from one of
the numerous Athenian altars, who is worshipped in ignorance, in
superstition and idolatrously. But man, inevitably, lives and moves and
exists in Him. He is the offspring of God and therefore man is incurably
religious.
This pervasive idea of God has been explained away by some modern
anthopologists. In our Scientific era, when we know what causes
lightning and rain and earthquakes and tornadoes, we no longer have room
for God. These events that used to terrify our forefathers are easily
explained now. So the idea of God is outdated and needless. Not so! For
the most learned men are still religious. They are still influenced by
their belief, however warped and inconsistent, in a Supreme Being. Logic
and reason are both within man's constitution, but these have never
defaced the notion that there is a God. Man still desires to worship and
bow down, even though it be (quite illogically) before stocks and
stones. People may arrogantly live as if there is no God; they learn to
do this quite will and boast themselves of being atheist. But even
Voltaire, who tired himself of mocking the Scriptures and the church,
when caught in a storm and in danger of death, is known to have
spontaneously pray to God to deliver him. To say glibly, "There is
no God," is the oppose all mankind, to deny the course of human
history, and to contradict your own nature.
Customs, traditions, politics, commercial methods, art, and
everything else in a state of flux; everything changes, but man, as a
religious being, does not change. His religion may change, but he is
still religious, and his conscience unceasingly testifies of his moral
nature. Now since man is a moral and intellectual being, it is certain
that a Higher than he has made him, who is also moral and intelligent.
Man's moral nature (at all times and among all nations), his religious
instincts, and his conscience all argue forcibly in favour of God's
existence. His sense of moral duty may be weak of strong, defiled or
pure, but is never totally absent. The only adequate explanation for all
this is that God, the Supreme moral Being, who made us, also implanted
this moral sense within every human being. No other explanation is
satisfactory.
Humanity has an idea of a supreme being. This idea was frequently
challenged (by atheistic idealogies, such as Communism) but never wiped
away. While the concepts about God found among different cultures are
varied, yet the idea remains.
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