Psalm 14:1 declares, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” This is a statement about both intellectual deficiency and moral rebellion. This can take the form of ideological atheism or practical denial of God’s relevance and authority. Scripture does not attribute atheism to mere ignorance but to foolishness. Contrary to both secular and religious culture, the Bible calls people stupid. Those who suppress truth and refuse to acknowledge God as God are stupid. They do so not because the truth is unclear but because it is unwelcome. This means that atheism is not the product of careful reasoning, but the result of moral corruption and defiance. The psalm immediately connects this denial with moral decay: “They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds.” The denial of God is a cover for wickedness, not a conclusion of honest thought.

Reason affirms the existence of God, because God is Reason. To deny God is to deny rationality itself. Scripture teaches that faith and reason are not opposed, but identified. Unbelief is irrational, and insanity. The atheist may pose as a skeptic when it is stupidity and rebellion in disguise. He claims he lacks evidence when he is a fool and degenerate with no ability to discern. He lacks the mind to see, so that he may believe, and he lacks the fear of God, so that he may obey. The fool’s problem is not that God is hidden, but that he is too stupid to believe, and that, being dumb and stubborn, he refuses to bow even when confronted by the truth.