Romans 1:18-32
Paul's Argument for God
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 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 people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
When St. Paul wrote to the Romans it was clear to him that God exists...He wrote since what God made the universe that we can see, then it should be easier to believe in God and know that He exists...Because by creating the universe and how He has done it is plain to see by everyone...For since the beginning of creation, and thus since the beginning of the world both of God’s visible and invisible qualities are there...God's eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen and are made known to us...We can see the universe and it can be understood from what has been created in the universe, so that people are without excuse as we look around and see these things that we see around us...And as people go about studying creation they find out that the created universe will point to God...And St. Paul even wrote of the things we cannot see like electrons and quarks and the tiniest of things, that he knew existed but that he could not see -gives us evidence of God through just the design of the universe itself...
God is the Great Architect of the Universe...God is organized and knows symmetry and patterns...Almost everyone believes there is design in Creation...So design in the universe exists...Patterns in the universe exists...Organization in the universe exists...Beauty in the universe exists...Great intrigue and curiosity in the universe exists...In this design of the universe, these patterns we find that they are somehow not in just one particular place, but these things are universal...Design is here on earth and out in space...God has give us mathematics to help us with His designs and patterns and His organization...And since St. Paul's time, and actually since the beginning of the universe, this design, these patterns and the organized universe has not changed...These things have not changed...
So one of the reasons St. Paul believed in God was because of the patterns, symmetry, and beauty he saw in the universe...And many years later there would be this argument for God from design...This argument is now called the teleological argument...(There is a Greek word “telos” which means “purpose” or “design.”)...If one simple tries to define the argument as it now its, it is defined as the universe gives us great evidences and great complexity through its design...And because we have this great design then there must be a Great Designer...And that Great Designer is God...Isn't this what St. Paul is telling the Romans in his letter to them...
This argument has been stated by others and with different analogies...One particular argument from design came much later and can be likened to William Paley's Argument about a watch, and his watch argument for God...Paley said that, "In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer...But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there...There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use...Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation."...
A watch is obviously made by a watchmaker, and is a complex instrument...I might think that St. Paul might even say that the stone that I stub my toe on also is a part of God's Designed Creation...But regardless, the world and the universe are much more complex than any one watch ever made or constructed, which includes, stones, and mountains, the sun, the sky, space, and trees...So the great complexity of the universe and how is was created gives evidence of God...St. Paul tells us that all these things around us and that the starry heavens are not just there by chance, much like they watch found on the ground...Could the watch just happen to be?...Could the universe just happen to be?...
There in this design of creation is a holiness in this divine design...When we look around we see design all around us...There is the design of creation and the universe, this organization, this pattern, this symmetry that cries out to a sacredness and a holiness...If the universe has design, there must be a Great Designer...