What Paul says here is indeed that people "should" be able to know God from
creation, but they don't. _Everybody_ doesn't. Paul makes it clear that the problem
isn't atheism but idolatries. People make up their own deities (such as The Intelligent
Designer). This attempt to know about God from nature & reason alone is not only
"unlikely to be very productive" but is very likely to be counterproductive. This is
NOT a text promoting natural theology. After Paul has stated in detail the universal
problem of Sin, the refusal to acknowledge the true God and its consequences, he does
not say, "OK, now let's do natural theology correctly." Instead, he begins to speak
(3:20 ff) about what God has done in Christ.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/