If at this point someone harbours a doubt that some Western historians claim to have identified some ancient nations who were altogether unaware of the belief in God, then the answer to this is as follows: Granted, some historians have noted this, and, in particular, they have asserted that peoples living in the earliest age were unaware of the belief in God altogether; however, a careful study reveals that such authors have been mistaken and have not fully done their research. Specifically, they have erred in attributing the idolatrous beliefs of certain ancient nations merely to fear, ignorance, and superstition, and concluded from this erroneously that they never believed in one God. That is absolutely incorrect; the fact is that idolatry, though resulting from ignorance, is an offshoot of the belief in God, not its root. That is to say, idolatrous beliefs always result from the corrupted forms of belief in God and never develop in the complete absence of belief in God. There are instances in world history that a nation appears to believe in God initially and, later, idolatrous notions creep in slowly and sometimes take over completely, relegating and annihilating belief in God. In the presence of such examples, justice demands that we assume concerning the primitive nations who appear to be steeped in idolatrous beliefs—while we do not have their historical records—that they subscribed to belief in God initially, which later degenerated into idolatrous beliefs. In fact, the examples presented by some to negate our view relate to the nations whose earliest historical records have not been preserved. In this situation, it would be unfair to ignore other clearcut instances and conclude that those nations held idolatrous views from the very beginning and that their idolatrous beliefs were based merely on ignorance, fear, and superstition, and that belief in one God never took root among them; such a conclusion would be unacceptable to any unbiased, reasonable person.
Moreover, if we ponder, we see that idolatrous beliefs can never arise out of ignorance, fear, and superstition alone; a belief in God must pre-exist. It is natural for one to be awestruck when confronted with something that is more powerful, formidable, magnificent, or beneficial than him; he begins to consider it as an immense thing and is subdued by it and fears it. However, if he is unacquainted with the concept of worship, it is absolutely impossible for him to take something as a deity out of awe or fear only, and regard it as his creator and master; for the thought of worship to occur, the concept of worship must pre-exist in his mind. Human imagination can never create a concept; it can certainly imitate. That is, if someone has seen or heard or experienced something, his perception can create its image in his mind, which he can develop and expand further. However, if he has never seen or heard it, nor witnessed the like of it, his perception cannot create its image in his mind. Therefore, as the concept of the worshipper and the worshipped exists in the belief structure of every nation, inevitably we have to accept that every nation in essence subscribes to belief in God.
Someone may say that at the start of this treatise it was stated emphatically that these days most of the people do not believe in God and every nation is falling prey to atheism, whereas now we are being told that all nations of the world believe in God and that atheism never enjoyed this general acceptance, and that this is an obvious contradiction. But this is not the case. When it was said that all nations are falling prey to atheism, it was with a view to actual belief, and here we are discussing the doctrine, not actual belief. Thus, the two statements are not contradictory, as both are correct in their respective contexts. It is true that most of the people these days do not believe in God inasmuch as their belief is not a living reality and it does not affect their lives. It is also true that all nations in the world have been subscribing to belief in God in one way or the other as part of their belief systems. For, however weak and lifeless, rather idolatrous, their belief might have been, they have always maintained that there is a God over this universe who governs our lives. Obviously we are talking about the doctrine not profound insight. So both statements are correct in their appropriate contexts and there is no contradiction. To summarise, the magnificent and worldwide acceptance enjoyed by the doctrine of belief in God throughout the ages is evidence that it is based on truth and that the opposing doctrine of atheism is incorrect and false.