Why Atheists Call Christianity “Foolishness”

There is a never ending procession of online debates and discussions between those who believe in God and those who do not. In many, if not all, of these conversations atheists will submit that belief in God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, prayer, miracles, and/or any combination of these, is ridiculous, silly, or foolish. As I pondered the many times that I have seen this idea being fired at me, and others, this passage came to mind. Let us look at it and see that God knew that atheists would be leveling the charge of “foolishness” at believers…even before it happened.

            “17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.”

The passage, which is found in I Corinthians 1:17-25, is written by the apostle Paul (guided by the Holy Spirit; II Peter 1:21) as he explains the motivation for his ministry. Although Paul was a learned Jewish leader before he became a follower of Jesus, he made it clear that his ministry was not based on his own cleverness or intellectual arguments.

            “18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it  is the power of God.”

Here is the key verse concerning why atheists refer to the Gospel as foolishness. Because, they know the truth, but wish to be free from it, they “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:28). And, when one knows the truth, any truth, but has no legitimate argument against it, their only recourse is to call that truth ‘foolishness’. A sad side note to this is that, if they persist in ‘suppressing the truth’ and calling it ‘foolishness’, there may come a time when they actually convince themselves that they are correct. When this happens, “…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:3-4).

For those who accept the gracious offer of salvation from God, this ‘foolish’ message then becomes the means whereby we are forgiven of our sins and granted eternal life. It is this ‘foolishness’ that informs us of what Jesus did on the cross and how we may become partakers of that forgiveness. The Gospel message then becomes “the power of God” in our lives.

            “19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to     save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the  foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

God set up the Gospel message in such a way as to remove any opportunity for anyone to say that the reason they are followers of Jesus is because they are better than others, smarter than others, or in any way superior to others. On the contrary, this passage (as well as many others) makes it clear that no one is saved unless God enables them to become His followers. This is not to say that Christianity is based on anti-intellectualism, or irrationality; quite the contrary, Christianity is based on historically verifiable accounts of Jesus Christ, the writings of Holy Scripture (the Bible), and the working of the Holy Spirit upon one’s person. In other words, if one investigates the history recorded in the Bible, and compares it to the universe we see around us, the best explanation for what we see is the one contained within the pages of God’s Word.

In light of the truths set forth in this passage, and others, we are faced with a decision: either to accept the ‘foolishness’ of God, which grants us forgiveness and eternal life, or to reject God’s offer in favor of human ‘worldly wisdom’ which ushers us into an eternity of misery separated from the love of God. Jesus has done everything necessary to procure our salvation, but we must choose whether or not to accept it. There will come a time when God judges every human according to their relationship with Jesus Christ; now is the time to choose.

NOTE: All Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible

Article by Robert Driskell