questioned if there are really any such beings. Hume, known as a
famous sceptic, is reported to have said to Ferguson, as together they
looked up into the starry sky: "Adam, there is a God." Voltaire,
the atheist, prayed to God in a thunderstorm. Ingersoll, when
charged with being an atheist, indignantly refuted the charge,
saying: "I am not an atheist; I do not say that there is no God;
I am an agnostic; I do not know that there is a God." "I thank God
that I am an atheist," were the opening words of an argument to
disprove the existence of God. A new convert to atheism was once
heard to say to a coterie of unbelievers: "I have gotten rid of
the idea of a supreme Being, and I thank God for it."

(2) Whence comes this universal belief in the existence of God?

aa) _Not from outside sources_, such as reason, tradition, or
even the Scriptures.

_Not from reason or argument_, for many who believe in God
have not given any time to reasoning and arguing the question; some,
indeed, intellectually, could not. Others who have great powers
of intellect, and who have reasoned and argued on the subject are
professed disbelievers in God. Belief in God is not the result of
logical arguments, else the Bible would have given us proofs.

_Nor did this universal belief come from tradition_, for
"Tradition," says Dr. Patton, "can perpetuate only what has been
originated."

_Nor can it be said that this belief came from the Scriptures
even_, for, as has been well said, unless a man had a knowledge