12. The manifestation of God is choked by human superstition and the error of the philosophers

Calvin says that the “labyrinth” of the human mind can formulate many idols or specters of god so an “immense crowd of gods flow forth from the human mind” What are the gods of today? Could they be money, power, relationships, social media and sex perhaps?  These comments of Calvin refer to those whom he describes as “untutored.”  He reserves particular venom for those who are philosophers in an allusion to Cicero and his disagreement among the learned gods in “Nature of gods”.  Who are the philosophers of our time who disagree over what or who God is?  Calvin then moves on to the Epicureans for whom it became customary to deny outright God’s existence.  Finally Calvin indicates that if human beings were taught by nature then upon recognising that there was “nothing certain or clear cut”, they would worship an unknown god.  He uses the example of the Athenians to illustrate this point  as St. Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and found and altar “To an unknown god” [Acts 17:23].  Who do you know who worships and unknown god today?