A fools says there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Is atheism also foolishness? This article gives three reasons to the affirmative.

Source: APC News, 2007. 2 pages.

Atheism – The Religion of Fools!

Isn’t it remarkable that atheists have their own holy day! It is 1 April better known to us as April fool’s day. For God’s word says: The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps.14:1a). Here in this article I want us to consider the supreme folly of atheism – the religion of fools. There are three things I want you to note.

First of all note the fool’s declaration: “There is no God”. The atheist speaks beyond his knowledge and hence his declaration is based on a warped kind of faith! His unbelief is the religion of secularism! “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov 1:7). I recall hearing once a story about a young Christian university student who had regularly been the target of his atheistic teacher’s ridicule and scorning on account of the man’s faith. However, one day the teacher jokingly invited the young man to lead the class. He surprisingly accepted the professor’s invitation and asked his assistance. The student drew a circle on the blackboard and told the professor that it represented all the knowledge that there is to possess. He then asked the professor how much of the whole did he think he knew. The professor said 1-2%. The young man then turned to his teacher and said: “given your own acknowledgement that you are ignorant of up to 98-99% of all knowledge, how can you make the absolute statement that there is no God.” The atheist was left speechless!

The atheist moreover thinks and speaks in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. While we appreciate that special revelation which is the word (Scripture), and Jesus (God incarnate), is foolishness to the natural man he is nevertheless left without excuse on account of natural revelation which declares the glory of God. Think on this for a moment: creation points to a Creator; design points to a Designer; conscience points to our Maker who is our Lawgiver and Judge; common grace speaks of the goodness of God; the external witness of the church and of individual Christians in the world visibly proclaim the existence of the one, true and living God who desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. The fool however suppresses the truth in his unrighteousness.

The fundamental problem for the atheist is not lack of evidence but his unwillingness to acknowledge God. He refuses to do so for he is spiritually dead in his sins and trespasses and at enmity with God. To acknowledge God would make him accountable and responsible to his Creator, Lawgiver and Judge. Atheism is thus not primarily an intellectual question as is often claimed but a moral one.

The atheist is first and foremost an anarchist and a rebel. Moreover the atheist will ever seek to give expression to his foolishness: The fool has said. He will ever seek to lead others into folly. He is the personification of folly. He is a living advert for foolishness. He is living testimony to the Fall of man!

Secondly let us note that the fool speaks from his heart: The fool has said in his heart. The atheist in other words has a terminal heart problem, again reminding us that the issue is primarily moral and not intellectual! God’s word makes this all too clear: “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer 17:9). “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Mat 15:18-19). The heart here denotes the centre of our beings – the imagination, intellect, will, emotion and so on. Man is not so much rotten to the core but rotten from the core on account of his fallen nature. Thus the fool needs a new heart! And this is exactly what God has promised in the new covenant; the covenant of grace. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezek 36:26-27). The fool needs to be born again or he will continue in his folly throughout his earthly life. And while we recognise that God is sovereign in the salvation of His people, He has appointed the means and calls on all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. The gospel is the only antidote and remedy for the deadly deceit of atheism.

Thirdly and finally therefore let us recognise that the atheist’s supreme folly has grave consequences for both himself and those he leads astray! For the fool is without God and without hope in the world. He is cut off from the fount of all blessing and goodness. He is among the walking dead in the present and will stand before the judgement throne of God to be condemned for all eternity – no matter what he might believe and declare to the contrary in the here and now. He is no different to a person who declares that there is no such thing as gravity and who seeks to demonstrate it by jumping off a skyscraper! The fool has a date with God. He has rejected and poured scorn on His Creator and His Gospel. He has loved his sin and the things of this world before and rather than God. God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” (Luke 12:20). The fool is speeding along the highway to hell. Lamentably he is ignoring all the signs to the contrary; he is pressing the accelerator, oblivious to reality, the warnings and his great danger. That is why the Scripture says: “The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall” (Prov 10:8).

Let us seek then to share the gospel with and pray for all those who think and act like atheists. Let us beware of practical atheism as well as the intellectual variety for such may have received the sign and seal of the covenant and give intellectual assent to the truth of God’s existence but deny Him by their very lives. Let us pray that the Lord would show such their folly that they might repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before it is too late.

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