The Scriptures tell us, ‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”’ (Psa. 14:1). By contrast, we find it is “The fear of the LORD” that is “the beginning of wisdom” (Psa. 111:10) and “the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Unbelief is folly, but to genuinely revere with holy dread the Lord God Almighty is the very foundation – the chief principle – of true knowledge and wisdom. This, the faithful church of the Lord Jesus proclaims to a world convinced of the ultimacy of human reason. Many of our unbelieving neighbours insist that ultimate truth can be found independently of God; that man can of his own native powers of intellect, penetrate the deepest mysteries of existence. Such is the hubris of those who, by worldly standards, are now deemed wise.

This is the third of a series of articles in which I am reflecting on the relationship between the natural sciences and the Christian faith. It is no secret that modern science is a largely pagan enterprise, carried out by those who say in their hearts, “There is no God.” And yet, as I have acknowledged, the scientific enterprise has accomplished great wonders. I have even encouraged Christians to accept, though not uncritically, science as a legitimate tool for understanding the material world, as a logical outworking of the Christian worldview. But how can we do this, while understanding the total depravity of fallen man? If knowledge is not founded upon the fear of the Lord, how can it be anything but folly? In this article, I hope to offer some reflections on the effects of the fall on human reason.

In the beginning, “God made man upright” (Eccl. 7:29) but this state of original righteousness was not to last. Now, in man’s natural state, “none is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Every man is now conceived in a state of sin, and this impacts every aspect of his being, including his knowledge and intellectual faculties. One passage that describes this impact in detail is found in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The Apostle Paul writes that God has revealed himself to mankind. Specifically, God has revealed his “eternal power and divine nature” (v. 19) in creation such that it is “plain to them” (v. 19) and “clearly perceived” (v. 20), leaving men “without excuse” (v. 20) for unbelief and idolatry. Theologians call this ‘general revelation’, meaning the knowledge of God and of spiritual realities that God makes accessible to all. A clear implication of this is that man’s reason was not wholly lost in the fall. Otherwise, nothing true could ever be “perceived” in “the things that have been made” (v. 20). Of course, no one perceives these truths independently of God because it is God himself who “has shown it to them” (v. 19). Indeed, nothing ever happens apart from God. But by what means does God reveal himself? In this passage, Paul does not speak of immediate knowledge, implanted miraculously into the mind, but a knowledge mediated through creation which is then “perceived”. Perception is an act of the mind, and though we understand this perception is enabled and empowered by the power of God, it is nonetheless a human act. So, in this way Paul acknowledges that all have a genuine knowledge of God (v. 21), but this truth has no spiritual benefit to fallen man. Instead, the truth is suppressed “by their unrighteousness” (v. 18). Because of sin, obvious truth is cast aside: “they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v. 21). Sin causes the “thinking” or reason of fallen man to become “futile” or useless. Indeed, “claiming to be wise, they became fools” (v. 22) and “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (v. 25). What is abundantly clear from this passage is that sinfulness ultimately prevents us from thinking rightly about God. In our fallen state, we will always find ways to reject the terrifying truth of who God is and the obedience we owe him, in favour of lies that comfort us in our rebellion. Sin makes us irrational and foolish, at least on spiritual matters.

An interesting illustration of how the suppression of truth can play out is suggested by Paul’s sermon in the Areopagus in Acts 17. Speaking to pagan Greeks, Paul quotes from two of their own poets (Acts 17:28), identified by commentators as Epimenides of Crete and Aratus. Paul clearly means to affirm the truth of both quotations, as applied to the true God he is proclaiming. Yet in their original contexts, those quotes explicitly refer to Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek myth. I think Paul recognises a clear vestige of general revelation in these quotations. The “eternal power and divine nature” of the true God was indeed plain to the ancient Greek writers, as it has been to all since the creation of the world. Thus, we see once again that the fallen reason of man can actually perceive truth. General revelation does not fail, or else the pagans could not be “without excuse”. And yet, this truth is supressed and made futile, not in this case by outright rejection, but by its twisting and misapplication. By applying these truths to a finite, anthropomorphic false deity like Zeus, they truly “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Rom. 1:23). After giving these quotations, Paul tries to correct this misapplication with the exhortation that “we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29). In the end, some mock, remaining in their fallen ignorance, but some by the grace of God believe and are saved.