What was obvious to Calvin

 The first page of the Institutes shows the cultural distance between Calvin and you and me. 

He said a person only had to think of themselves to think of their maker. It is immediately obvious to everyone, he said, we live and move in God since we must get all our endowments and even our very being and existence from him and not from ourselves. 

Today this doesn't seem self-evident to most people. Or so we would say. If we know this truth (even at some level) we are somewhat in denial.