By Davi Lago – Brazilian Baptist Pastor

www.davilago.com

“The fool hath said in his heart, {There is} no God. “ (Psalms 14.1). This is one of the main statements that the Bible makes about atheism. We highlight two points:

1. Atheism is nonsense. Deny the existence of God is foolish because God´s existence is obvious. The bible tries to defend the existence of God because it’s the most basic of all truths. The Bible starts by stating categorically: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1.1). The Bible says that God can´t be completely known by us, but enough can be known: “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from created things” (Romans 1.20). God is clearly seen in creation. In this way, atheism is considered foolish because it´s irrational is going against the clear, the reasonable. Actually, atheism is the greatest folly to be possible. The atheist simply closes his eyes to the evidence and covers his ears to reason. But why he does this? This brings us to the next point:

2. The foolish of atheism comes from man´s sinful heart. No one becomes atheist because of arguments, but because of the sin in his heart. There´s no one conclusive argument to prove the nonexistence of God. In Romans 1.19 the Bible claims that atheists don´t deny God by logic but by injustice, “men suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. The Bible says that the atheist denies the existence of God because he decided to live for sin. In other words, suits the atheist that God doesn´t exist. It is through the denial of the existence of God that the atheist justifies his immoral life, peverted, depraved, irresponsible, arrogant, liar. As Augustine said: “Nobody denies God unless it is concerned that there is no God”.

The Bible disqualifies the atheism as valid belief revealing it´s irrationality, inconsistency and incoherence. Thus, the Bible does not bother with atheism, it´s concerned with idolatry. The first of the Ten Commandments is against idolatry and not against atheism. The great danger of civilization isn´t  that it don´t believe in God, but it´s delivered the wicked fantasies and imaginations. Men never cease to believe in something, they´re always searching God, of meaning, purpose, of life eternal. Thus, men are always doing for themselves gods. Even atheists worship gods, either sex, addiction, money, status, or even a philosopher. The big question don’t is: “Does God exist?” but rather “What kind of God exists?” Therefore Jesus also didn´t worry so much about atheism but idolatry. His concern was not just that people believe in God but in the true God. He prayed: “This is eternal life: that they may know, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John17.3).