Isn't it obvious?

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For 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.

Christians spend an awful lot of time, energy, and money going around debating with The World about where we came from. We're always looking for that one bit of evidence, whether it be a uniquely complex microorganism, the proportionality of the Sun, Moon, and the Earth, or the fallibility of carbon dating, that will seal up the debate and convince the Darwinists that we've been right all along. Considering the great campaign to label Christian scientists (small "S") as Flat Earthers whose superstitions trump empirical truths, I suppose we've been lead to assume that the outcome of the debate will be settled on the basis of evidence. Not so, says I.

Paul reminds us that God's existence is obvious. It's not a matter of evidence. Everyone knows that God exists, and the fact that he created everything can be "clearly perceived… in the things that have been made." You don't need a lengthy explanation of the anatomy of the woodpecker's skull to know that God made everything. You just need to step outside.

To borrow from Lewis, to argue the existence of God based on evidence is like going outside at noon and displaying 8×10 images of shadows from around the world. "See the shadows in these photographs??? Aha! The sun must exist." If this were British television, a man in a Sherlock Holmes costume would enter the scene, take a puff on his pipe, and point skyward. We don't see God because we see everything else. We see everything else because we see God.

This is not to say that apologetics should be completely discarded. However, we should avoid the fallacy that the unbeliever will easily be converted once we've had a chance to show them our shiny suitcase full of evidence because evidence has never been the problem. A man who is able to casually dismiss the majesty of all creation, and its Creator, will remain unimpressed no matter how good your PowerPoint presentation is. The reality, again from Scripture, is that he hates God and refuses to acknowledge that He even exists, regardless of the "clearly perceived" evidence.

This reminds me of the old proverb about wrestling with a pig… you get all dirty, and he enjoys it. Rather than wasting your time trying to convince him that he's not the product of evolution, tell him that he's a sinner and that the reason he can't believe in creation is because every act of his life demonstrates his hatred of the Creator. Tell him that his faith shouldn't be placed in his knowledge of Darwinian biology, but in the Son of the Creator, who is restoring the creation to its original design. Tell him he can either join the Creator in this restorative process, or remain in rebellion against the things that, deep down, he knows to be true about the universe he finds himself in. Lastly, tell him that this Creator can spare him from the hopelessness that logically accompanies an existence that is without purpose, intention, or eternality.