Mini-FAQ: Psalm 14:1

[Wayne Delia]

I am the original author of a Mini-FAQ appearing on Usenet circa 1997, detailing eight logical fallacies affecting a single popular Bible verse, most often used by apologists to insult atheists.

MINI-FAQ: Psalms 14:1

"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good." (Psalms 14:1)

ad hominem fallacy: An argument is discounted based on attacking the character of the person making the argument. ("He is wrong when he says there is no God, because he is a fool.")

strawman fallacy: Arguing against a position by creating a different, weaker, or irrelevant position and refuting that position instead of the original. ("There is no God" misrepresents "There isn't sufficient evidence that God exists.")

circular reasoning: The truth of the conclusion is assumed in order to justify the premises. ("The fool says there is no God, because anyone who says there is no God is a fool.")

begging the question: The argument creates a secondary proposition that is related to the primary proposition, which requires a similar argument that is missing. (The existence of God is assumed, while addressing propositions of whether God exists.)

fallacy of inconsistency: The argument is inconsistent with other arguments within the same context. In the Christian context, Jesus commands against the invective in Psalms 14:1, warning that "whoever says 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire" in Matthew 5:22.

special pleading: The inappropriate attribution of emotive functions to objects that do not have that capability. (Hearts are not capable of "knowing" or of feeling emotions.)

redundancy: Psalm 53 is identical to Psalm 14.

questionable premise: It is obviously not the case that all atheists do nothing but bad deeds. This premise is invalidated by a single example of an atheist doing a single charitable act.

Additions or constructive criticism are welcomed.

 

[rizdek]

The only come back I've heard that makes sense is when someone says, "The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God.'" is "The wise man says it out loud."

What I didn't know was that this verse was apparently in Anselm's mind when he came up with the Ontological Argument for God. See here: http://www.princeton.edu/~grosen/puc/phi203/ontological.html

His point was because the fool has a concept of a god and says it doesn't exist, his position is inconsistent.

•He understands the claim that God exists.
•He does not believe that God exists.


"Anselm's goal is to show that this combination is unstable. Anyone who understands what it means to say that God exists can be led to see that God does exist. On this view, the atheist is not just mistaken: his position is internally inconsistent." And this argument which started due to that Psalms verse continues to gain traction.