Romans 1:20

For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.

The invisible things of him ... is a reference to God's everlasting power and divinity; and Paul's argument is that invisible things may be "seen" by the mind. The things that are made, namely, all created objects, are the things which enable the mind to comprehend what no natural eye can see, that is, the power and divinity of God. This becomes, therefore, an impressive reference to the teleological demonstration of God's existence. The very fact of something's having been made is certain proof of there having been a maker. It has grown fashionable in some quarters to ridicule the teleological argument for the existence of God, but the inspired authors did not hesitate to use it. "For every house is builded by someone; but he that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4), is an example of it; and Paul's appeal to this argument in this context indicated his utmost confidence in it. The passing centuries have confirmed its logical appeal. One of the great scientific minds of the current century, Dr. Andrew Conway Ivy, wrote:

I have never found a person who when urged could not give a reason why he or she believed in God. The reason has always been to the effect that `Someone had to make the world and the laws that run it," or "There cannot be a machine without a maker." That basic truth is understood by every normal child and adult.[42]

Dr. Ivy developed his thoughts along this line at length and concluded that faith in God could never be destroyed from the earth as long as children are being born into it; for, he continued:

The basic principles of unsophisticated and rational thought and belief will always rise again with the birth of every child. ... So compelling is the natural law of the relation of cause and effect that the developing mind of the three to five-year-old child realizes that there must be a Creator.[43]

That they may be without excuse ... There is no doubt that Paul held the wicked ancient Gentiles to be inexcusable on any grounds whatsoever, and particularly he refuted in this passage any possible allegation that they might have been excused on grounds of ignorance. The thrust of these words suggests that there might have been in Rome, when Paul wrote, some of the same type of apologists for gross sinners who, in every age, like to blame economic conditions, or politics, or society, for any crime, no matter how revolting, but never blame the perpetrator.

[42] Dr. Andrew Conway Ivy, in The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe (New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1958), p. 229.

[43] Ibid., p. 231.