Strange Searches: Atheists Are Idiots

April Fool on me, the auto-post failed. This was scheduled at 12.01 AM Eastern Time.

"Now you're just being downright nasty! As if telling the truth is bad enough, now you're doing name-calling!"

Simmer down, Selma. It's one of the search terms in my site meter that shows how people came to my site. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a set-up and someone is laughing because I used it, but big deal.

For me to use a broad, sweeping generalization that "all atheists are idiots" because I thought the ones I met qualify for that classification would be to commit a hasty generalization fallacy. Further, to call someone an idiot is erroneous in the first place. Although the meaning has changed over the years, at one time, it meant that someone had an IQ of about 30, and a mental age of a three-year-old or less. It is no longer used as a designation. Now it is just a way to call someone stupid.

But I digress.

When looking at groups of people, you get a spectrum. Some atheists are well-schooled and intelligent. Others are too stupid to empty my dishwater safely. And everything in between. (Some consider themselves as brilliant, but are actually quite dim.) The same can be said about almost any group, really. To say "atheists are idiots" commits multiple fallacies.

No, atheists are not idiots.

They are fools.

"HA! I knew it! You are a big meanie fundie creotard hater!"

Now, unbunch your panties, Priscilla. I am not engaging in simple name calling. In fact, I am not the one to decide that atheists are fools.

God said it first.

"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'

They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;

There is no one who does good." — Psalm 14.1 NASB

"The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;

 but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction." — Proverbs 1.7 WEB

Someone can be brilliant according to the world's education and wisdom standards, but still be a fool in God's eyes.

Albert Barnes said,

The word “fool” is often used in the Scriptures to denote a wicked man - as sin is the essence of folly. Compare Job 2:10; Psa 74:18; Gen 34:7; Deu 22:21. The Hebrew word is rendered “vile person” in Isa 32:5-6. Elsewhere it is rendered “fool, foolish,” and “foolish man.” It is designed to convey the idea that wickedness or impiety is essential folly, or to use a term in describing the wicked which will, perhaps, more than any other, make the mind averse to the sin - for there is many a man who would see more in the word “fool” to be hated than in the word “wicked;” who would rather be called a “sinner” than a “fool.

Do you catch that? "Fool" is not simply saying that a person is stupid. It is worse, because there is a moral element involved. The one who says "there is no God" (or pretends that "I lack belief" is not an assertion of belief) is stupid in the eyes of God, and is a vile person.

It doesn't matter how "good" you think you are.

But there is another element here. "The fool says in his heart there is no God". That is not just arrogant atheists who think they are smarter than everyone else because they choose to disbelieve (Romans 1.18-22). It applies to people who live as if there will be no consequences for their sin, no judgment.

We have all sinned against God (Romans 3.23). And we all deserve death, but God has given us a way out (Romans 6.23). Jesus loves us and died on a cross for us (Galatians 2.20), and was raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15.3-6, 1 Peter 3.18). We, too, can be saved from the wrath of God and become justified in his sight (Romans 5.9). We can have eternal life (John 3.16-17) and become children of God (John 1.12).

Try to understand, because this is vitally important. You may not have tomorrow, and you will have to stand before God at Judgement. All of your pride, bravado and possible brilliance will count for nothing.

Some of God's children may be stupid, but we are not fools.

For more in-depth explanations of the plan of salvation, click here (video) or here for an audio presentation. Or both.