Psalm 14:1b

Ray Comfort's favorite verse:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

That's the verse Ray probably quotes more often than any other, so often that he has it on a bumper sticker which recently caused a bit of a stink. The trouble is, that's not the whole verse. That's just the bit that people like Ray like to quote.

Here's the rest of the verse:

They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

A nice bit of name-calling, don't you think? But this, I think, is the reason why we never see the rest of that verse: it's demonstrably false, and thus disproves inerrancy!

Because obviously there are atheists who do good. In fact, the prison population in the United States has a much, much lower percentage of atheists than does the general population. There are atheists who have served, and are serving, in the US Armed Forces with honor and distinction. There are atheists who run charities. And so on.

Ray might object that the verse is referring to no atheist being perfectly morally good -- never having lied, stolen, loved God less than maximally, etc. But that excuse won't fly, because that would make everyone in the world an atheist. (In the New International Version, a footnote to the word "fool" indiciates that the original Hebrew refers to one who is morally deficient.) I've already discussed the possibility that Ray himself is an atheist, but would Ray himself admit to that? Probably not.

So the next time Ray, or someone else, quotes Psalm 14:1a to you, simply smile and ask him to quote the rest of the verse to you. See if he or she can do it with a straight face.