Francis Schaeffer has some interesting thoughts about language and memory. From: The God who is There:

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) speaks of the collective unconscious which emerges from the race as a whole. I think he is mistaken in his thinking, especially in the evolutionary origin which he gives it. And yet there is a certain memory in a culture that is carried on in its language. Such a language-related memory, I suggest, is a better explanation for what Jung calls the collective unconscious (1).

Footnote (1)

My thinking has led me to believe that there is a collective cultural consciousness or memory which is related to words. I would suggest there are two parts to it: a collective memory of a specific race, and a collective memory of all men as to what man is and what reality is.

Thus man, in his language, “remembers” (regardless of his personal belief) that God does exist. For example, when the Russian leaders curse, they curse by God, and not by something less; and atheistic artists often use “god” symbols. This, I believe, is a deeper yet simpler explanation than Jung’s view of god as the supreme archetype arising (according to him) out of the evolution of the race. Moreover, in man’s language, man also remembers that humanity is unique (created in the image of God), and therefore words like purpose, love, morals carry with them in connotation their real meaning. This is the case regardless of the individual’s personal worldview and despite what the dictionary of scientific textbook definition has become.