All men believe in God

Our age is famous or infamous for the large numbers of people who say they don't believe in god. But what what do they mean by god? To what are they referring when they use this word? Is their idea of god a Santa Claus figure who lives on an asteroid somewhere? (One might think so from some of the commentary one reads.) People seem utterly ignorant of who god is and of what 'place' in the universe he has. If people realized what God is responsible for then they might change their minds about whether or not they believe in God.

We can define God (to an imperfect degree) by delineating his functions (excuse the language). So what 'work' does God accomplish and provide?
- God created the universe; it would only exist if he'd created it. God upholds (maintains) the universe. (In other words it would wink out of existence if it no longer factored into his will and plan.) God gives us the knowledge we need to engage in rational thought, as he is the foundation 'behind' our necessary presuppositions and for universals. God is the foundation for truth, morality, moral law; the foundation for all absolutes. God is the source of intelligence, personality and language. God is the foundation for uniformity and logic. Do you believe in logic? Do you rely on uniformity?

The question then is this; do you believe in a universe, reality, in truth, in moral absolutes, in law, in language, in universals, in logic, in beauty, in meaning, in justice? in complex, specified information, in Design? If you do you believe in God. Without the Triune god revealed to us in scripture none of these things would be possible.

- Criticisms; some people will read this (assuming anyone does) and say; "that my friend is nothing more than an empty claim."

Let me respond to our polite dissenter. (I don't get many readers of my humble blog, but when I do they're always well mannered :=) I believe my claim is true for two reasons; a. it's what the bible and orthodox theology teaches, b. materialism (mere matter in motion) is utterly incapable of producing the things I mentioned. Most or all of my examples involve immaterial entities; by their very nature matter in motion could not produce them. (e.g. universals like truth, logic; language in general.)

Summary;
One reason people are so ignorant of theology (and the more educated they are the more ignorant they usually are) is that they don't want to know the truth about God. I remember listening to a lecture given to a select group of professorial types and in the Q+A a posh sounding Brit lady took the mike and said; ''I don't even know what you're talking about when you talk about God. Can you define this god?"

If she was being honest (and I suspect she was) she had no excuse for her ignorance. She lived on a campus filled (even in our debauched times) with books on theology.... even a few good ones :=) She lived no far from where men formulated the famous Westminster Confession. She didn't know 'what' god was because she didn't want to know. She was one of a large crowd that conjure up some utterly horrid and stupid idea of god and then tell themselves proudly that they don't believe in anything like that! When people say they don't believe in god, they really mean that they don't want to give god any credit. (i.e. any credit for the things they do believe in.)

Notes;
1. I believe my short summary is Biblically accurate, and can be backed up by exegesis. In short the argument is that even if some kind of a cosmos could exist without a creator God, it would be a kind of empty and formless void... utterly devoid of living organisms and especially of man; that it's only the ordering Word of God that brings all valued human experience into being.
2. It's my observation that educated 'atheists' form their idea of god by collecting the worst things about god they've ever heard and then fabricating their image out of these falsehoods. I believe that they do this out of a bias against the idea of the Triune God found in Christian scripture. (The good books are out there, but somehow the 'atheist' never seems to find them.)
3. While I claimed that all people believe in God, I didn't mean to infer that there are no people who honestly (ie. privately) don't believe a creator God exists... who are so confident they don't even doubt it. (I think such people are rare, but I don't know if this is true or not.) What I see them as having done is to have used various ideas to rule God out of existence a priori. (i.e. god doesn't exist because he can't exist.)
- Most 'atheists' rely on hedonism to keep god out of mind. If you really work at it you can keep almost any 'awful' truth out of your mind.
- Since I'm no artist let me describe a cartoon. A man sits out on a veranda. Let's say he's a famous writer, now in his twilight years. He's giving an interview. He's drinking a scotch. Are you afraid to die?" he's asked. He pops a pill and downs it with a drink. "Not in the least," he says.