How to Debunk It

1. This is not even an argument, just an ad hominem accusation. Calling another person a fool gets you nowhere closer to proving that a supernatural deity exists. People who can’t support their religious claims and just revert to name-calling against those who disagree with them aren’t really worth debating. There isn’t even an argument to debunk here.
2. Some of the greatest discoveries and inventions in history have been made by people who didn’t believe in god. Some of the most successful businesspeople, artists, writers and world leaders have been unbelievers. It makes no difference if you like them or agree with them—the one thing that’s simply untrue to say about them is that they’re fools. This accusation is therefore evidently, manifestly false.
3. The entire verse actually goes: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” And yet, we know that plenty of irreligious nations, like Sweden and Norway, and irreligious people, like Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, have been some of the most generous and helpful to humanity. The accusation is actually double-downed in the sense that it accuses irreligious people not just of foolishness but of being corrupt, abominable and evil, and is therefore doubly false.
4. Is a person also a fool for believing there is no Zeus? How about Odin, Ra, Quetzalcoatl, Amaterasu and thousands of other deities? Do you think all the people who believed in these deities were not fools because they believed in god, or that they were fools because they believed in the wrong ones?
5. Interestingly, this quote actually reveals the fact that there have always been those who didn’t believe in supernatural deities, and that the religious have always felt threatened by them.
6. Since we know for a fact that the accusation is baseless and false, anyone can play this game (if they want to stoop down to this childish, name-calling level). I can just as easily say “The fool has said in their heart—there is a god.” See? Anyone can play this silly game.
7. If even a fool could figure out that a made-up deity wasn’t real, what’s your excuse?

Get the Debating Religion book now and start debunking common religious arguments in real time. This is a practical hand-book comprised of short segments that introduce common religious arguments followed by bullet-point replies that debunk them—simply, quickly, straight to the point.