Romans 1:18-32
God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
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.
Author Nancy Pearcey wrote: “It is clear now why Christianity played a significant role in launching the scientific revolution in the first place...Only a biblical worldview provides an adequate epistemology for science...First, a Rational God created the world with an intelligible structure, and second, He created humans in His Image...In the words of historian Richard Cohen, science required the concept of a “Rational Creator of all things,” along with the corollary that “we lesser rational beings might, by virtue of that Godlike rationality, be able to decipher the laws of nature.”...Theologian Christopher Kaiser states the same idea succinctly: the early scientists assumed that “the same Logos that is responsible for its ordering is also reflected in human reason.”...
Paul, in his letter to the Romans, is asserting that the existence and attributes of God can be discerned through the natural world...We can see the natural world and see that creation is all around us...
Paul tells us that God has different invisible qualities...While God Himself is unseen, His attributes, such as His eternal power and Divine Nature, are evident in creation that we can see...
He believed that creation was a revelation of God, our Maker...The universe serves as a revelation of God, displaying His wisdom, design, and power...And we humans have a responsibility in our seeing and our observances of the universe...So, Paul believed that people are "without excuse" for not recognizing God because His attributes are clearly visible in the world around them...Paul is arguing that humanity has a basic knowledge of God through our observations of the natural world...This knowledge of God, however, has been and is suppressed by our sins, leading to idolatry, not seeing and seeking God, and a rejection of God...
Like St. Paul, the first and earliest of scientists believed there was a Rational, Divine Architect and Designer behind the creation of the universe...This belief in a Creator God, often referred to as the "Logos," was seen as the foundation for understanding the natural world...The idea was that since humans possess a degree of rationality, they could potentially decipher the natural laws governing the universe, as they were created by a Rational God...
This view and belief underscores the historical intertwining of faith and science...This relationship of faith and science has changed as the scientists have discovered more and more since the time of St. Paul, but still his words to the Romans remain true...