How the Ancient World Knew There is a God

A century before Christ, the great Roman writer Cicero said, "When we see something moved by machinery, like an orrery [mechanical model of the planets] or clock or many other such things, we do not doubt that these contrivances are the work of reason; when therefore we behold the whole compass of heaven moving with revolutions of marvelous velocity and ... perfect regularity ... how can we doubt that all this is effected not merely by reason, but by a reason that is transcendent and divine?"

So when Paul wrote the book of Romans, his audience knew as well as we do that the cosmos gives evidence of a mind that is "transcendent and divine."

Cicero concludes, "You see not the Deity," yet "by the contemplation of his works you are led to acknowledge a God."

Nancy Pearcey