Why are people without excuse even if they never had the Scriptures?
People are without excuse because God has given every human being an inward knowledge that a Creator God exists. Though it may lie dormant under circumstances, creation itself, such as a starry sky, supplies evidence sufficient for anyone willing to seek, so Gentiles outside Israel could have known God.
Les explains that from Abraham until Acts, God dealt primarily with Israel, while pagan Gentiles were without hope, aliens and strangers, and lost, as Paul says in Ephesians 2. Yet God still holds them responsible because they could have known. Les stresses this is hard to comprehend, but God knows every human being has within his breast the knowledge that there is a Creator God. It may be dormant because of circumstances, but if a person really wants to put forth the effort and look at a starry midnight sky, he can conclude there is a Creator God behind all this. Scripture teaches they are without excuse and have all the evidence. Paul at Athens confronted idolatrous philosophers on Mars Hill and referenced their altar to the unknown God, declaring the God they ignorantly worship, the God who made all things.