Every atheist you’ve ever met already knows God exists.
Sure that sounds rude at first. But it isn’t our idea. It’s what the Bible teaches. And once you see why, one of the most common questions about God becomes much easier to answer.
Here’s the question: when a Christian says ‘God exists’, is that a statement of faith or a statement of fact? Put simply, is God’s existence a fact, or only something we hope is true?
Many people think facts are things we can prove, and faith is what we fall back on when we cannot. So, they say, God belongs in the ‘faith’ box, next to hopes and wishes. Some Christians agree. Others go the opposite way and say reason alone proves God, so faith isn’t needed for that question at all.
Both answers miss something important. The Bible gives a better answer—and a much stronger one.
THE SHORT ANSWER
God’s existence is a fact. It’s true whether anyone believes it or not, and every human being already knows it deep down. Faith isn’t the opposite of this fact. Faith is how a Christian rightly receives that fact, rests on it and trusts the God it points to. So the honest answer is it’s both—but not in the way most people think.
First, Let’s Define Our Words
A fact is something that’s true no matter what anyone thinks about it. The earth goes round the sun. Water boils at 100°C at sea level. Facts don’t need our permission to be true.
Faith is a word whose meaning has drifted. Atheist Richard Dawkins, for example, has described faith as blind trust without evidence. But in the Bible, faith is trust in what God has made known. It isn’t a leap in the dark. It’s a step into the light.
2 Very Different Ideas of ‘Faith’
| Question | THE POPULAR IDEA OF FAITH | THE BIBLE’S IDEA OF FAITH |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Believing without evidence | Trusting what God has clearly shown |
| What it rests on | Feelings, wishes or guesswork | God showing Himself in creation and in the Bible |
| How it relates to facts | It replaces facts | It is built on facts |
| An example | ‘I just feel it will work out.’ | ‘God raised Jesus from the dead, so I will trust Him.’ |
The middle column shows what many people today mean by ‘faith’. The right-hand column shows what the Bible means by it.
Christians have long said true faith has three parts. The old Latin names sound difficult, but the ideas are simple:
- Knowledge (notitia): knowing what is true—for example, that God exists and that Jesus died and rose again.
- Agreement (assensus): saying ‘Yes, that is true’ with your mind.
- Trust (fiducia): resting your whole life on it, the way you rest your full weight on a chair.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the much-loved teaching guide for churches, says true faith is ‘not only a certain knowledge … but also an assured confidence’ (Q&A 21). Notice where faith begins: with certain knowledge.
Even the Bible’s own description of faith points this way:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
The Greek word translated ‘conviction’ is elenchos. It was used for proof that settles a question—like evidence that wins a case in court. Biblical faith is not guessing. It is being convinced.
God’s Existence Is a Real Fact, Not a Private Feeling
Christianity does not say, ‘God exists for me.’ It says, ‘God exists.’ Full stop. If God is real, He is real for the atheist too, just as gravity is real for a man who refuses to believe in it. Paul even tells us what would prove Christianity false:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17
No one talks like that about a feeling. You only talk like that about a fact.
Everyone Already Knows God Exists
Now back to our opening claim. Why does the Bible say that every person knows God? Read these words slowly:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:19–20
WHAT ROMANS 1:18–21 TEACHES, STEP BY STEP
- God shows Himself: ‘God has shown it to them’ (v. 19). The knowledge comes from God, not from clever human thinking.
- People see it clearly: His power and nature ‘have been clearly perceived’ (v. 20). Not dimly. Clearly.
- The knowledge is real: ‘they knew God’ (v. 21). Not could have known—did know.
- People push it down: they ‘suppress the truth’ (v. 18). To suppress means to hold something down by force—like a beach ball held under water. It keeps trying to pop back up.
- No one has an excuse: ‘they are without excuse’ (v. 20). Nobody can tell God, ‘You did not give me enough evidence.’
Psalm 19:1 says the same thing: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.’ The sky preaches a sermon every day, in every language, to every person.
The French pastor and Bible teacher John Calvin (1509–1564) called this inner awareness the sense of divinity (in Latin, sensus divinitatis). He wrote that ‘the human mind, even by natural instinct, possesses some sense of a Deity’ (Institutes 1.3.1). Knowing God is built into us.
Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987), a Dutch-American apologist, compared the unbeliever to a little girl who sits on her father’s lap in order to slap his face. She can only reach him because he’s holding her up. In the same way, the atheist uses God’s gifts—His mind, His logic, His very breath—to argue God isn’t there.
So the atheist isn’t a person who has never met the evidence. He’s holding the beach ball under water. ‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”’ (Psalm 14:1). Notice where he says it: in his heart. Atheism is first a matter of the will, not just the mind.
So Where Does Faith Come In?
If everyone knows God exists, why talk about faith at all? Because the human problem is not a lack of information. It is a lack of trust.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
Some people read this verse and say, ‘There! Believing God exists is a matter of faith, not fact.’ But look again. The verse is about drawing near to God, not merely knowing about Him. And James shows that simply believing God exists is not saving faith at all:
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
James 2:19
The demons know God exists. To them it is a terrifying fact. But they do not love Him or trust Him. So the Bible speaks of two very different kinds of ‘believing’.
2 Kinds of ‘Believing’
| Question | BELIEVING THAT GOD EXISTS | TRUSTING IN GOD |
|---|---|---|
| Who has it? | Everyone—even demons (James 2:19) | Only those given new life by the Holy Spirit |
| What is it? | Knowing a fact | Resting your life on a Person |
| What does it lead to? | It leaves people ‘without excuse’ (Romans 1:20) | It brings people near to God (Hebrews 11:6) |
Both columns involve ‘believing’, but only the right-hand column describes saving faith.
Saving faith takes the fact that everyone already knows and does something new with it. It bows. It gives thanks. It trusts.
Faith also helps us understand. Hebrews 11:3 says, ‘By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.’ Faith does not switch off the mind. It opens the eyes.
And faith brings certainty, not guesswork. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), a classic summary of Bible teaching, says our ‘full persuasion and assurance’ of God’s truth comes ‘from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts’ (1.5). The Spirit does not give a ‘hope-so’ belief. He gives a ‘know-so’ belief.
Herman Bavinck (1854–1921), the great Dutch theologian, taught the arguments for God are not the foundation of a Christian’s faith but its fruit. Believers don’t trust God because they first won a debate. They see the evidence clearly because they already trust Him.
God Is the Reason Facts Make Sense at All
God is not just one fact among many, like the height of Mount Everest. He is the reason any facts make sense at all.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
Psalm 36:9
Think about what you need before you can know anything:
- Logic: Unchanging, invisible laws of reasoning do not come from matter and chance. They fit a God who is truth and never changes.
- Order in nature: Science assumes nature will behave tomorrow as it did today. Christians expect this, because God holds all things together. The atheist simply has to assume it.
- Trustworthy minds: If our brains are only the product of blind chance, why trust them—even when they say there is no God? Christians trust their minds because God made us in His image.
- Right and wrong: Real moral laws need a real Moral Lawgiver, who has written His law on every heart (Romans 2:15).
Greg Bahnsen (1948–1995), a student of Van Til, argued in a famous 1985 debate with atheist Gordon Stein that the proof of God’s existence is that without Him you cannot prove anything at all. This is a transcendental argument—an argument about what must be true for anything else to be possible.
In plain words: to argue against God, the atheist has to borrow from God’s world. As Proverbs 1:7 says, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.’
Everyone Lives by Faith in Something
Atheists often say, ‘I go by evidence, not faith.’ But think about how everyone actually lives:
- You trust your memory: yet you cannot prove your memory works without using your memory.
- You trust other people: most of what you know about history, geography and science, you have never checked for yourself.
- You trust reason: yet you can only defend reason by using reason.
None of this is foolish. It is how God made us. But the real question is not ‘faith or no faith?’ It is ‘faith in what?’
The American philosopher Alvin Plantinga has shown that belief in God can be properly basic. That means it is reasonable even without first proving it by an argument—like believing that other people have minds. Nobody proves that, yet everyone is right to believe it. Belief in God belongs in the same group.
Evidence Confirms What We Already Know
None of this means Christians ignore evidence. Paul pointed people to rain and harvests (Acts 14:17) and to the resurrection, by which God ‘has given assurance to all’ (Acts 17:31).
5 Signposts That Point to God
| SIGNPOST | THE SIMPLE IDEA | WHAT IT SHOWS ABOUT GOD |
|---|---|---|
| The beginning of the universe (the Kalam argument) | Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began, so something outside it caused it. | He is eternal and all-powerful |
| Fine-tuning | The laws of nature are set with amazing precision so that life can exist. | He is wise and purposeful |
| Design in living things | Living cells contain tiny machines and coded information. | He is a brilliant Designer |
| Morality | Real right and wrong need a real Lawgiver. | He is holy and good |
| The resurrection of Jesus | Strong historical evidence shows Jesus rose from the dead. | He has spoken and acted in history |
Each signpost is explored in more detail in our apologetics section.
These signposts do not create knowledge of God from nothing. They wake up what is already there, like an alarm clock waking someone who is already in the house.
3 Ways to Answer the Question
Christians have answered our question in three main ways:
Faith, Fact or Both? 3 Approaches Compared
| APPROACH | WHAT IT SAYS | THE PROBLEM |
|---|---|---|
| Blind faith (sometimes called fideism) | We cannot know God exists. We must simply believe. | Ignores Romans 1 and makes faith look like wishful thinking |
| Reason first | Reason alone can prove God. Faith comes later. | Makes the human mind a neutral judge over God, and forgets that sin bends our thinking |
| Scripture first (the view of this post) | Everyone knows God. The Bible explains this. Evidence confirms it. Faith trusts. | None in principle—but it must be explained carefully, or sceptics will call it circular |
‘Fideism’ comes from the Latin word for faith. It means relying on faith alone, with no place for reason or evidence.
Knowing That God Is vs Knowing Who He Is
Creation tells every person that God exists. It does not tell us His name, or how sinners can be forgiven. For that, God has spoken in the Bible—and most clearly in Jesus, who ‘has made him known’ (John 1:18).
And even clear evidence cannot make a Christian. ‘The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). A blind man is not helped by turning up the lights. He needs new eyes, and only the Holy Spirit gives them.
What about Christians who doubt? Doubts do not cancel a fact. On a stormy night a sailor may doubt the lighthouse is there, but the lighthouse does not move. One father cried, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9:24). Jesus did not send him away. He helped him.
WHEN SOMEONE SAYS, ‘YOU JUST HAVE FAITH’
- Ask what they mean: ‘If you mean belief without evidence, that is not what Christians mean by faith.’
- Point to their own faith: ‘You trust your reason and memory without proving them first. We all start somewhere.’
- Point to Jesus: ‘Christianity rests on a public event—the resurrection. Let us look at the evidence together.’
Answering 3 Common Objections
- ‘Isn’t this circular reasoning?’ Every final authority has to vouch for itself; the atheist uses reason to prove reason. The real question is which starting point actually makes sense of the world.
- ‘If it is a fact, why do you need faith?’ We know most facts by trusting reliable witnesses—history, for example. Faith is simply trust in the most reliable Witness of all.
- ‘Hebrews 11:1 says faith is about things “not seen”, so it cannot be knowledge.’ Unseen is not the same as unknown. You cannot see gravity or another person’s thoughts, yet you know both are real.
Conclusion: Faith Rests on Fact
So, is God’s existence a matter of faith or fact? It’s a fact—the most basic fact of all, known by every person. And faith isn’t a weak substitute for knowledge. It’s how a forgiven sinner joyfully rests on that fact and trusts the God it points to.
The atheist and the Christian don’t differ because one has evidence and the other does not. They differ in what they do with it. One holds the beach ball under water. The other lets it rise—and bows in thanks.
As Paul says, ‘we walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7). But we never walk in the dark.
Tough Questions, Honest Answers
Can science prove or disprove God’s existence?
Science studies the physical world by measuring and testing it. But God is not a physical object inside the universe: ‘God is spirit’ (John 4:24). So you cannot put God in a test tube, any more than you can find a painter by testing the chemicals in his paint. Science can, however, show us the Maker’s fingerprints—the universe’s beginning, its fine-tuning and the information in DNA. And science itself depends on an orderly world and trustworthy minds, which only make sense if God exists. So science cannot disprove God; it actually relies on a world that God made.
Are atheists lying when they say they do not believe in God?
Most atheists are sincere, and we should never call someone a liar lightly. The Bible describes something deeper than lying: self-deception. Romans 1:18 says people ‘suppress the truth’, pushing it out of their conscious minds until they honestly feel it is not there. Many of us do something similar with uncomfortable truths about our health or our sins. So we can respect an atheist’s sincerity while lovingly saying that, deep down, he knows more than he admits.
Who carries the burden of proof—the believer or the atheist?
In debates, the person making a claim is usually expected to support it. But both sides make claims: one says ‘God exists’, the other says ‘The world can be explained without God’. Each side must show how its view makes sense of logic, science, morality and meaning. The Bible adds that God has already given clear evidence to everyone (Romans 1:20). Even so, Christians should gladly give reasons, ‘always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect’ (1 Peter 3:15).
Is agnosticism an honest middle ground?
An agnostic says, ‘I do not know whether God exists.’ It sounds humble, and some agnostics are truly searching. But the Bible says God has made Himself plain to everyone, so complete ignorance is not really possible (Romans 1:19). Agnosticism also does not work in daily life: you either live as if God is there, or as if He is not. Elijah asked the people, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions?’ (1 Kings 18:21). If you are unsure, the honest next step is to read the Gospels and ask God to show Himself to you.
Why doesn’t God just appear to everyone and settle the question?
Jesus answered this in a story about a rich man who, after death, begs for someone to rise from the dead and warn his brothers. Abraham replies, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead’ (Luke 16:31). The problem is not that God is hidden but that hearts are hard. In fact, God has appeared: Jesus walked among us, did miracles and rose from the dead, and many still refused to believe. Seeing is not the same as trusting. Only the Holy Spirit can change the heart.
Did Jesus ever argue for God’s existence?
Not in the way a philosopher might. Jesus never tried to prove that God exists; He spoke as One who came from God and knew Him perfectly (John 1:18). He treated God’s existence as the most obvious truth in the world. When religious leaders went wrong, He told them, ‘You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God’ (Matthew 22:29). Jesus shows us that the deeper issue is not whether God exists, but whether we know Him and listen to His Word.
Do all religions point to the same God?
Every person knows that a powerful Creator exists, which is why religion is found in every culture (Acts 17:22–23). But religions describe God in very different ways—one God or many, personal or impersonal, a God who forgives freely or a system where we must earn His favour. These cannot all be true at once. The Bible teaches that God has made Himself fully known only in Jesus, who said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6). Christians should be kind and respectful to people of every faith, while gently pointing them to the God who has shown Himself in Christ.
Related Reads
- The God Particle: What Does the Higgs Boson Really Say About God?
- Does God Exist? 10 Compelling Evidences
- Is Faith in Jesus Logical and Reasonable?
- Why Does God Call Atheists Fools?
- Satan’s Lie: ‘God Hasn’t Given Us Evidence to Believe’
- Arguments for the Existence of God: Aquinas’ Timeless Quintuple
- What Is Scientism? Why It Fails Its Own Test
- Christian Answers to Atheist Objections: A Defence of Faith
- Faith Amid Uncertainty: Can We Doubt and Still Be Christian?
- The Kalam Cosmological Argument: Does the Universe Need a Creator?
