For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.
That not only admits the reality of the natural world but it asserts that what we know of God in this life is to be known through our minds and that it can be seen THROUGH what he has made. That's about as strong an assertion of the validity of the study of natural philosophy, what we call "science" as has ever been made, though it includes the validity of making inferences outside of the material universe to the unseen reality of God. I'd say that's a far more ambitious assertion of the power of the study of the universe than we, trained to think in the limits of science, are used to feeling comfortable with. And it's right there, in the Bible.
Update: I didn't want to go that far but verse 22 says,
"While claiming to be wise, they became fools."
So Paul didn't so much anticipate the neo-atheists, he knew such people first-hand.
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