"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse," (Romans 1:20).
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands," (Psalm 19:1).
I have a problem with the way we take the first verse to mean that things are so clear and obvious. On one hand, when people claim they are looking for God, but don't see enough evidence, we tell them it is by "faith, not sight". But the way we take this verse, knowledge of God
would be by sight!
We conflate this with chapter 2, which talks about Gentiles and conscience. We then seem to think that
conscience is the vehicle through which God has "shown" everyone (1:19).
But the whole theme of Romans is a contrast between gentiles and Israel. Chpater 1 is talking about
Israel, whom God had "shown" Himself through the Law and the Temple system. (These are often what "creation" and "the world")age) even refer to!)
They were the ones who "
once knew" Him, but became "darkened" (1:21) when they rejected further revelation from Him.
The gentiles had never known Him, nor the Law; hence they only had conscience. But conscience by itself does not tell one exactly who the Creator is. Neither does even all the "design" in nature. It's at best an evidence of some sort of intelligence. The "glory" of the Heavens is appreciated in light of a prior faith.
The whole point of the book of Romans is that what both groups need is Grace. The Israelites trusted in the Law, but the Law only condemns and leaves "without excuse".
My point in this is that faith is very hard today, and Grace is what I hope for.
And to think, the human hand isn't the only thing that can perfectly wrap around it. Truly a testament to His divine existence.
I watched several of their films, and they are so confident in their arguments. We really do not realize how foolish stuff like this looks to everyone, but we think they are the ultimate proof.
Making it worse, is that their full theology is a mix of Calvinism and perfectionism ("Lordship salvation"; leader is John MacArthur) that says that God "chooses" a relative few, to open their minds to the truth, and "blinds" everyone else, yet still leaves them "without excuse" (as if they "should have known"), and that even many professing evangelical Christians are not really saved, since they are not producing enough "fruits" (good works, behavior, devotion, etc)
(BTW, Sat., before we met, we discussed some of this type of stuff for a bit).