The next argument that I would like to present is that of general acceptance. It is based on the principle that worldwide acceptance of a notion or a belief that has survived throughout the ages is evidence that such a notion or belief, in its essence, is based on truth. The Holy Quran states:
That which is really useful and beneficial for the people constantly persists in the world, but a useless and unbeneficial thing never achieves that permanence.
Likewise, we have the scientific principle of ‘survival of the fittest’; i.e. in the struggle for survival, only what is useful and worthy of survival prospers and the rest perishes. Our observation also suggests that only beneficial things attain real longevity and a harmful, useless, or non-beneficial thing cannot flourish worldwide indefinitely. I do not mean to say that a false or non-beneficial thing cannot be established in the world; rather, my point is that the existence of such a thing cannot be permanent and worldwide and that its existence is temporary and limited.
When viewed according to this principle, belief in God turns out to be a doctrine that cannot be denied by any sensible person. All the nations in the world, great or small, civilised or uncivilised, educated or uneducated, all of them wherever they are, despite their innumerable differences, agree that this universe did not just happen; rather, it has a Creator and a Master. The notion that this universe is created and owned by a Higher Being is not limited to present-day nations only, but has been seen among all nations without exception throughout recorded history. Granted, there is a great deal of disagreement over the attributes of that Higher Being, and different nations present God in different forms and shapes; some believe in one God with no other deity above or below Him, while others have many deities and insist on devotion to all of them. In short, there is a great deal of disagreement about the Being of God and His attributes among different nations. But despite this disagreement, the focal point of religions of all nations appears to be this: the universe did not come into being by itself; rather, it is the miracle of Omnipotence of a Higher Being. The Jews and the Christians, the Hindus and the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Parsis, the Jains and the Buddhists, the Native Americans of North America, the Hottentots and the Zulus of South Africa, indigenous people of West Africa and Aborigines of Australia, the Eskimos of the Arctic, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Gonds and the Santhals of India, and the Taoists of China—when we look upon epochs, we see the people of the present age or the middle ages or the pre-historic ages or the primitive tribes—in short, take whatever nation and whichever period of time and the belief that this universe is governed by some Higher Being comes to light in one form or another. Therefore, this consensus on the existence of God among all nations throughout the ages, the great and numerous disagreements notwithstanding and no matter what His attributes are and whether He is one or more than one, constitutes evidence of the existence of God which no intelligent person can deny. I am not saying that these nations claim to have seen or recognised God and perceived His attributes as eyewitnesses. All I say is that all nations of the world, despite innumerable religious differences, have proclaimed belief in God, in one form or another, throughout the ages, and this claim alone, because of its universal acceptance, constitutes an argument supporting the existence of God.
Consider carefully that such universal acceptance of a belief— that all nations proclaim it as a focal point of their faiths, and the failure to find a single instance in recorded history of a nation as a whole rejecting this belief—indeed constitutes an undeniable argument for the truth of said belief. Wrong beliefs do take root in the world; sometimes they disseminate widely over a certain period but never has it been observed that such a wrong belief has spread all over the world so as to engulf all nations without exception, and never beyond a limited period in such a way as to have acquired universal acceptance since the beginning of days. If that happened, peace would vanish from this world and it would become difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood. Hence, the widespread and overwhelming acceptance of this belief—i.e. that there is a Higher Being ruling over this universe who is beyond the limitations of time and space—and the wonderful longevity of this belief, unparalleled in the history of the world, attests that the belief in a Higher Being cannot be false.
Indeed, during all of the ages there have been, there are people who did not believe in any God at all. However, they never attained the status of a nation for any length of time and atheism has never been proclaimed as state religion anywhere; neither has an atheistic movement ever been launched as an independent and well-grounded movement. It has never attained any significance beyond temporarily taking over the hearts and minds of a few men. In the history of nations, the doctrine of atheism can be compared to a small group of insurgents who revolt from time to time against an organised and established government, but cannot hold out for long; nor do they manage to achieve any lasting and strong sovereignty over any significant territory. Can the authority of any established government be challenged on account of such rebels? No, never!
1 Surah ar-Ra‘d, 13:18.