S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

Both Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 read, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Some take these verses to mean that atheists are stupid, i.e., lacking intelligence. However, that is not the o...

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July 01 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeremiah Kaaya Supporter Pastor at Springs of Power Church, Teacher by professional

Psalms 14:1: "....a fool has said in his heart; there is no God...." It sounds quite abusive and insulting, but since the Bible has phrased it the way it is; it gives us space to discuss it in those terms. It is indeed to express foolishness for one to say there is no God.

A few questions though;
Why does the Bible refer to such a person as a fool?
Was it intended to abuse and insult?
What is the intention of the person who says so?

Why does the Bible refer to such a person as a fool?
I believe this Psalm was written by David. David loved God wholesomely. He knew Him as his only source of everything. If God was/is the source of all for David, who is yours? As that, to David and many of us, for one to say there is no God is sheer foolishness. Why? There is every evidence that God is there. Science is limited and we have nothing more than that other than spiritual. Is there anything else we can do to believe God is there? Yes, but not by intellectual or human means! Does He want us to blindly believe in Him? No. If so, Jesus wouldn't have come and the Bible wouldn't have been written.

Now that human capacity is limited in approving or disapproving much, then what? This is my submission. I believe;there must be a being over and above who is in charge of all. If I can't even tell what my wife thinks, despite the fact that I share so much with her. Who is that other person in me or in you that can't be seen by anybody else? He must be only visible to somebody else called God. Human science has failed to tell us of such. As that, a person who says there is no God is a fool because he/she has not sat down to meditate and ponder on such issues with a much more balanced mind. I believe God is there, but I am not doing so blindly, I do because even if I wasn't to, there is overwhelmingly enough for me to believe God is there. If even air, which is not in solid form is counted as matter!

Was it intended to abuse and insult?
No it wasn't, it was only for explanatory purposes. It is more meaningful and understood phrased and asked that way.
Many people only come to such a conclusion; "...there is no God.." because they want to assume to do away with God. They feel they should be independent of God. But God is all loving and patient with us in the hope that our life journeys will become a testimony upon which we can build our faith in God. That is why even if you are an atheist, you still live, because God means well for you.

No body in this world has no spiritual lenience. Even atheists you will realize they readily accept an opposing spirit to the power of God. Such are all the devils schemes. To deny God is there is simply to try to resist God's overwhelming power and manifestation. It actually tells there is a voice in you which you are trying to quiet up. Mark you, to deny Obama is US President is not to say he is not. Even though you hate and do not like him, it doesn't make him any lesser a president. 

God's power will always act on you, even though you deny He is. That is why you will helplessly die anyway. Not so? There are many things we would want to be under our control, but we can't. We can only pray about them if we are to. I wish you had the power to manage every bit of yourself...! When a child is attacked, he/she looks to an adult for help. The adult can do what the child can't. Not so? To be atheist is only to wish and be rebellious.

What is the intention of the person who says so?
The intention of the person who denies there is God is simple; just trying to use their little energy to fight God back. But He remains God anyway.

As that, once again, to deny God is there is to be foolish more to God and less to us. He would do whatever and He has whatever it takes to drown you. He is only giving you space to get to know by yourself. Mark you, He is watching closely! So it is foolish to deny God is there because it means you have not thought harder. Try to think harder! All tells God is there, how about you?

May 09 2014 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

ainsley chalmers Supporter Medical Research Scientist, devoted family man.

Let’s summarise what atheists believe:
1. All life on earth resulted from a big bang. In short order (creation) resulted from disorder (massive amounts of gases and dust) in contravention of both the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

2. When one considers the incredible design within a cell less than one hundredth of a mm and claim it came from chaos, as atheists do,you would have to be a fool. Consider that a biological cell is far more complex than a Boeing 747 would you say the 747 happened by chance or design?

3. There are hundreds of prophecies about the God Messiah made hundreds of years before their fulfillment in and appearance of and in Jesus Christ. Atheists ignore these prophetic truths and thereby the godhead of Christ.

I’ll let you decide who the fool is: the Christian who believes the universe is God designed and created, or the atheist who believes all this creation came about by chance.

January 12 2024 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter Arizona Bible College graduate and Dallas Seminary graduate

Our English word fool comes from a Latin word that means “bellows,” suggesting that the fool is a person “full of hot air.”

“There is no God.” 

Believing this lie frees the wicked to do whatever they please, for they become their own god. “You shall be as God” (Gen. 3:5; 6:5). Wiersbe

As Michael briefly mentioned, “Psalm 14 is duplicated in Psalm 53”, but let me add, there are 2 changes: Psalm 53 uses the name “God” (Elohim) instead of “Jehovah” and replaces Ps 14:6 with an addition to Ps 14:5.

What does it mean that fools say in their hearts, "There is no God"? Belief determines behavior. The entire verse, Psalm 14:1, says, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good." 

It is just as the hymnwriter put it:

The God Who sits enthroned on high
The foolish to their heart deny;
Not one does good; corrupt in thought,
Unrighteous works their hands have wrought.

And secondly, it is the fool ALONE that denies the existence of God. He is also denying that there is an all-powerful God. He denies that God is sovereign and in control of things. He's actually denying the goodness of God, too in his denial that God made his body, soul, and mind. He is an idiot for thinking that there isn't a great Cause behind the universe!

As John Q. Adams put it to verse:

The fool denies, the fool alone,
Thy being, Lord, and boundless might;
Denies the firmament, Thy throne,
Denies the sun’s meridian light;
Denies the fashion of his frame,
The voice he hears, the breath he draws;
O idiot atheist! To proclaim
Effects unnumbered without cause!

(Most of Adams' verse, both religious and secular, was written after he had left the Presidency.)

August 18 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

What does the Bible mean when it says 'The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'"?

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God,'" (Psalm 14:1; 53:1) means a person lives with practical atheism—acting as if God does not exist, is distant, or does not intervene in human affairs, rather than intellectually denying God's existence. The "fool" Naball) refers to someone with a morally corrupt heart who defies God's laws.

The verse suggests that denying God is not a failure of intelligence, but a failure of heart and character. The subsequent verses in Psalm 14 describe these individuals as corrupt, doing abominable deeds, and failing to do good.

Internal Rebellion: The phrase "in his heart" signifies a deep-seated, internal decision. It suggests that the denial of God isn't necessarily based on a lack of evidence but on a desire to be free from moral constraints.

Psalm 14:1 ESV: "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; none doeth good."

Rather than denoting a person who is lacking in mental ability, the word "fool," as used in the Bible, generally refers to an individual who spurns reason and follows a morally insensible course out of harmony with God's righteous standards. Various Hebrew terms denoting such a one are 'kesilʹ ('stupid one'; Pr 1:22), ʼewilʹ ("foolish one"; Pr 12:15), na·valʹ ('senseless one'; Pr 17:7), and lets ("ridiculer"; Pr 13:1). The Greek aʹphron refers to an "unreasonable one" (Lu 12:20), a·noʹe·tos to one "senseless" (Ga 3:1), and mo·rosʹ to a 'fool' or "foolish" one (Mt 23:17; 25:2).

The course of the man Naball illustrates the way of a fool (1Sa 25) as does that of people who know the true God and then worship created things. (Ro 1:20-25) Isaiah said, recorded at Isa 32:6 ESV: "For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise profaneness, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

The fool despises wisdom and discipline. ESV: Pr 1:7

"It never occurred to any writer of the OT [Hebrew Scriptures] to prove or argue the existence of God," says Dr James Hastings in A Dictionary of the Bible. "It is not according to the spirit of the ancient world in general to deny the existence of God, or to use arguments to prove it. The belief was one natural to the human mind and common to all men." This does not mean, of course, that all men at that time were God-fearing. Far from it. Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 both mention "the senseless one," or as the King James Version says, "the fool," who has said in his heart, "There is no God."

What kind of person is this fool, the man who denies the existence of God? He is not intellectually ignorant. Rather, the Hebrew word na·valʹ points to a moral deficiency. Professor S. R. Driver, in his notes to The Parallel Psalter, says that the fault is "not weakness of reason, but moral and religious insensibility, an invincible lack of sense, or perception."

Dr Hastings sums up: "Counting on this absence of God from the world and on impunity, men become corrupt and do abominable deeds." 

Yes, they openly embrace ungodly principles and discount a personal God to whom they have no wish to be accountable. But such thinking is as foolish and senseless today as it was when the psalmist wrote his words over 3,000 years ago.

4 days ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report