We commonly understand Psalm 14:1 to be the most direct address to what we call atheism in all the Bible. David writes here, “It is a truly foolish person who believes that there is no God.” This word fool, in the Hebrew, is the word nabal, “Nabal” means folly, or foolishness; it is a person who is lacking in understanding. The word folly originally meant someone weak in intellect, which is ironic when you consider that much of the force behind atheism seems to come from the world of academia and institutions of higher learning.
But what do we call the person who says they believe in God 100% but outside of that statement and perhaps church attendance, they live as if God is not real in their lives? What about those of us who believe in God 100% and want to know God and love him and be faithful to him, but there are times, or certain aspects of our life, or some places we have not surrendered to God, and so, we are living, at least at times, as what we might call Practically Atheists!
Now, we may say, “Yes, yes, only a fool doesn’t believe in God.” And that is what the scripture says, but the operative word for us this morning is this word “Believe.” The question I want to draw down on this morning, and more to the point is, “Do You Believe?” And do I believe? Or are we Practically Atheists?
