The Christian accepts the truth of the existence of God by faith.  This is not blind faith, but a faith which is based on evidence, and the evidence is found primarly in Scripture as the inspired word of God, and secondarily in Gods revelation in nature.

Scriptures about God
 

Hebrews 11:6"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must belive that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him."

Genesis 1:1"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

The above verse describes God as the following:
1.  God as the Creator of all things,
2.  Upholder of all His creatures,
3.  Ruler of the destines of individuals and nations,
4. It testifies to the fact that God works all things acording to His will will and reveals the gradual realisation of His great purpose of redemption.

Jesus said John 7:17"If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority."

This revelation of God is the basis of our faith however it is only by faith that we except the revelation of God and we accept the revelation of God into its contents.  It is this extensive knowledge, resulting from intimate communion with God which Hosea has in mind when he says "Let us know, let us persue the knowledge of the Lord"Hos 6:3.  The unbeliver has no real understanding of the Word of God.  The words of Paul are very much to the point in this connection:  1 Corinthians 1:20,21" Where is the wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the disputer of this age?  Has not God made foolish of this world? for since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God througth the foolishness of the message of the message preached to save those who belive."

Students of comparative religion and missionaries often testify to the fact that the idea of God is practicaly universal in the human race.  It is found even among the most uncivilsed nations and tribes of the world.

Atheists

There are two kinds of Atheists

1.  Practical - Are simply godless persons, who in their practical ways do not reckon with God.

2.  Theoretical Atheists - Are of a more intellectual kind, and base thier denial on a process of reasoning.  They seek to prove by what seem to them conclusive rational arguments, that there is no God.
 

Practical Atheists
 
There can be no doubt about the existance of practical atheists, since both Scripture and experience testify to it.

Psalm 10:4 declares the wicked,"The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts."

According to Psalm 14:1"The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God"".  Experience also testifies abundantly to their presence in the world.  They are not necessarily notoriously wicked in the eyes of men, but may belong to the so-called"decent men of the world", though respectably indifferent to spiritual things.  Such people are quite conscious of the fact they are out of harmony with God, dread to think of meeting him, and try to forget about him.  They seem to take a delight in parading their atheism when their lives are smooth sailing, but have been known to get down on their knees for prayer when their life was suddenly endangered.  At the present time thousands of these practical atheists belong to the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.

Theoretical Atheists

Theoretical atheists are of a different kind they usually of a more intellectual type and attempt to justify the assertion that there is no God by rational argumentation.  Prof Flint distinguishes three kinds of theorectial atheism, namely:

1.  Dogmatic atheism - which flatey denies that there is a divine being
2.  Sceptical atheism - which doubts the ability of the human mind to determine, whether or not their is a God and
3.  Crictical atheism - which maintains that there is no valid proof in the existance of God.

The above types of atheists often go hand in hand, but even the most modest of them really pronounces all belif in God a delusion.

However the real atheist is the dogmatic atheist, the man who makes the positive assertion that there is no God.  Such an assertion may mean one of two things; either that he recognises no god of any kind, sets up no idol for himself, or that he does not recognise the God of the Scripture.
 

Humanist - To the modern humanist "God" simply means "the sprit of humanity" "The sense of wholeness," "The racial goal".  Other theories not only leave room for God, but also pretend to maintain his existance, but certianly exclude God of being a supreme personal Being, Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe, distint from his creation but everywhere in it.

Pantheism - merges the natural and super natural, the finite and infinite, into one substance.  It often speaks of God as the hidden ground of the phenomenal world, but does not concieve of Him as personal and therefore as endowed with intelligence and will.  It bodly declares that all is God, and thus engagesin what Brightman calls the "expansion of God," so that we get "too much of God", seeing that he also includes all the evil of the world.  It excludes the God of Scripture, and in so far is cleary atheistic.  They who respect the existance of God may differ somewhat from the dogmatic atheist, but they, as well as the latter, leave us without a God.