The Folly of Atheism, Part 2

Reflections on Psalm 14:1

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). In the spirit of wisdom literature, David views folly as the opposite of wisdom. Now the fool is far from dumb. Folly, in the biblical sense, is not a lack of intelligence. The fool may be smart and clever by the standards of the world but in the eyes of the Lord he hasn’t a clue as to the true purpose of life. In his thinking he has banished God to the outskirts of the universe. 

Whether or not he would call himself an atheist, the fool has decided that God will have no place in his life. The fool stands in marked contrast to the wise, to those with God at the center of their lives. In Scripture, the fool is also referred to as wicked, senseless, arrogant and a mocker. VanGemeren comments: “The fool lives without mystery, without a sense of awe, without a sense of accountability.” Psalm 92 declares: “How great are your works O Lord, how profound your thoughts. The senseless man does not know; fools do not understand.”

The issue is not cerebral but moral. It is not the head but the heart that is the seat of atheism: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Even Plato acknowledged that atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of the understanding. Since the heart is vile, the thoughts are evil. If the spring is poisonous, the stream must be noxious. One naturally follows the other. Atheism is not the mere absence of belief in God—it is a refusal of God, a fight against God, a challenge to God. Have you ever noticed how angry and caustic some atheists are toward God and people of faith? Richard Dawkins is a prime example. He is filled with contempt for his opponents. One cannot help but wonder - if he is so secure in his position, why all the anger? 

Mahatma Ghandi said of atheism: “It amazes me to find an intelligent person who fights against something which he does not at all believe exists.” Why all the hostility? Because sinners are at war with God. By nature, we will not have God as He is. By grace, the Lord makes us willing so that we personally and irresistibly come to him in faith. Through Christ, the Spirit gives us what we do not have, a heart to love him. 

The evidence for God’s existence is perpetually before us, for the Lord has left his imprint upon the created order, the theater of his glory. In order to escape the obvious, the rationalist must embrace irrationalism. Boa comments: “Those who place their faith in atheistic evolution must maintain the philosophically absurd notion that chaos produced order, lifeless matter produced life, chance produced intelligence and accidents produced purpose.”

One clever reply to the atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook. How can people open their eyes and not be immediately struck by the majesty and beauty of creation and the superior power and splendor of the One behind it? As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20: “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

God’s glory shines forth in all his works. He has implanted the knowledge of Himself in human beings. Even the atheist has the law written on his heart (see Romans 2:14-15). Therefore, men are without excuse. It’s been said, “No one can plead innocence because no one can plead ignorance.” And yet, in our sin, we resist his ever-present testimony and close our minds to the truth. How foolish indeed. “How mad the rage which raves and foams against him in whom we live and move and have our being! How horrible the insanity which leads a man who owes his all to God to cry out, ‘No God!’" - Charles Spurgeon. 

How mad the rage, but how merciful the Redeemer! To those in the wasteland of unbelief, be it the atheist or the nominal Christian, Jesus lifts us out of the slimy pit, sets our feet on a rock and gives us a firm place to stand through the gospel. Once deaf and blind, we are made alive. Paul writes, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

This is God’s gracious gift to you, the mind of Christ.