The bible says "a fool says in his heart there is no god". (psalm 14:1) I am going to assume that since the verse is in the bible, the implied definition is the Jewish god, not any definition of god. I think thats a fair call, unless some religious folks can make a case for the existence of Xenu or would be willing to acknowledge Allah or Zeus as a reasonable god belief to qualify one as a non fool.
From Dictionary.com:
Fool –noun
A silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense. A weak-minded or idiotic person.
The bible is wrong. As it is almost all the time, here is some proof in sayings by some very wise men who say, in their hearts, there is no god.
Was Thomas Jefferson, chief architect of the US constitution a fool? How about Albert Einstein? Steven Hawking (literally the most intelligent man alive by most standards)? I think its fair to expand the definition to include the evangelical christian god. So, lets qualify here, the bible says anyone who does not acknowledge the Evangelical Christian God is a "fool". That really widens the group, as there are probably less than 100,000,000 evangelical christians in the world today. That means, the earth is, according to the bible, populated by 5.9 billion fools. Lets see what some of the fools have to say.
"Faith is believing things you know aint true" -
Mark Twain 1835 - 1910
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful." --
Seneca the Younger 4 B.C.E. - 65 C.E.
"All thinking men are atheists."
Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961
"Belief in God is Childish" -
Albert Einstein
"The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri
"If Atheism is a religion, then health is a disease!" Clark Adams
"It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society, it is belief." George Bernard Shaw
“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” - Steven Roberts
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle." Benjamin Franklin
"We could call order by the name of God, but it would be an impersonal God. There’s not much personal about the laws of physics." Steven Hawking
"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires."
Sigmund Freud
"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions."
Blaise Pascal
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike."
Delos B. McKown
"Our ignorance is God; what we know is science."
Robert Ingersoll
"If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will not use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle."
Dave Barry
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus
"I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder."
Bill Maher
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."
Isaac Asimov
"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion."
Arthur C. Clarke
"If you have a faith, it is statistically overwhelmingly likely that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had. No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and parables, help a bit. But by far the most important variable determining your religion is the accident of birth. The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different, and largely contradictory, set of convictions, if only you had happened to be born in a different place.” -
Richard Dawkins
"Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." -
Thomas Jefferson
Evangelical christianity is an arrogant, wealthy persons religion that preys on the poor and lonely to fill its cavernous churches and practically bottomless coffers. As its been said, in America, "In God We Trust" is right where they want it, on the MONEY.
Final Quotes:
"If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself. He must sell all he has and give it to the poor". "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" "if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it in the fire."
Who, exactly, then, are the fools?