Self-Evident Truth – The Creator

Self-evident truth is knowable by all. It is not hidden from a person’s ability to comprehend. It is self-evident because it is common knowledge by simple observation and experience—much like the fact that everyone knows that if you drop an object, it will fall to the ground, unless there is some type of intervention.

From a Biblical or Christian perspective, such self-evident truth has been called “general revelation.” The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that such truth is clearly seen or known because it is revealed or known by the things that are created. In other words, the creation itself reveals certain aspects or unchangeable attributes within the created order.

One self-evident truth is that there is a Creator.  The order and complexity of nature—the sun, moon, the stars, the life cycles of vegetation, and the patterns of animal instinct and migration are just several witnesses for the truth of the Creator who created all things according to His will and purpose. Going back to the Apostle Paul, he stated that it is because of the design and physical attributes of the seen world that we all know of the reality of the Creator and have no excuse to deny His existence (Romans 1:19-20).

Those who envisioned a government for the United States clearly acknowledged the self-evident truth of the Creator’s existence. In fact, they not only proclaimed as a legal premise or presupposition that there is a Creator, but they declared that the Creator created all human beings. “We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men [human beings] are created” (Declaration of Independence, (1776).

This self-evident truth regarding the nature of people and their origin was the foundation upon which all governmental structures and institutions were to be built. This is true regardless of ones abilities, status, age, born gender, or wealth. While the finer points of government and law were to be discerned and entrusted to wise and trustworthy representatives selected by the people to act on their behalf, at the core of America’s philosophy of government is the self-evident truth that the Creator is.