Whenever we read the Bible, because of the spiritual implications of its messages, we tend “almost” all the times to give metaphoric or deep meaning to most of its passages which is okay but there are some passages that are actually and simply literal.
In fact, most are first literal. For instance,…“thou shall not kill”…” thou shall not steal” and the rest of Exodus 20 and then later philosophical. What about Psalm 14:1…”The Fool says in his/her heart, There is no God”.
The dictionary meaning of a FOOL is “a person who acts unwisely or imprudently…” So an unwise person is someone who is not wise. What is being wise? it means “having or showing experience, knowledge and good judgement…become alert to or aware of something”.
According to the website…http://www.psychologytoday.com…an infant starts achieving some levels of awareness(self in particular) within 1-3 years after birth while website like …http://www.parentingcounts.org… says between 15-24 months. So give or take, lets put it at 5years for Self Awareness. This is just the first stage of self awareness and not public awareness or mental articulation of existence and the whole shebang.
Romans 1:19-20 says “since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the worlds God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”
How does self awareness for infants and Romans 1:19-20 relate? Thanks for asking.!
There are certain facts that no one and no generation can claim to have witnessed it creation or birth such as the Sun, the Moon, the Skies, the Invisible Air we breath, the Mountains, the vast Seas and Oceans with its thousands of sea creatures including those yet to be discovered, the Plant/Forest kingdom with millions of different and diverse species of trees, the animal kingdom and many more. All these pre-dates the creation and existence of the Human Being…
Their continous existence and ecological balances over millions of years WITHOUT Human interference is what Romans 1: 19-20 meant when it said “for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made…” These creations of God speak not only of His existence but His eternal power and divine nature.
Check out these scriptures:Job 12:7-10 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind”
Palm 95:4-5 “In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountains peaks belong to Him. The Sea is His, for He made it, and His hand formed the dry land”
Psalm 104:24-25 “How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-living things both large and small.”
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
In a nutshell, this world and all that live in it including Mankind are a clear and concrete attestation to the existence of God and His divine nature and eternal power.
By the time a child is achieving self awareness, certain facts are already in existence even before the he/she was born such a the Sun, the Moon, the Skies, the invisible air we breath, the mountains, the vast seas and oceans with thousand of sea creatures including those yet to be Discovered. So we all from infant to early ages are unwise until we start acquiring “already existing” knowledge from people who too(unwise) acquired their knowledge from others earlier than themselves and it keeps going on further into history known and unknown…So we all(including believers and those who do not believe in God) learn what we have learnt from those who didn’t witness first-hand creation itself and yet we take a “life-transforming” decision not to believe the obvious ( the existence and eternal power and divine nature of God) from what is Physically present but to believe that God does not exist on the basis/principle form by people who too never witnessed creation.
Not witnessing the creation of an object does not deny the existence of the object. For instance,when you see a bridge or a car, common sense will tell you it was created by some people even though you do not know who they are or when they made it. The fact that you did not witness the manufacturing of the car does not mean cars don’t exist…Sorry to say but it’s just dumb to reason otherwise.
So following the definition of a Wise person which includes the following words; 1. having or showing experience; 2. knowledge and good judgement…3. become alert to or aware of something”. So what it means to be wise is that you are working with empirical facts and/or you are an original first-hand witness to the facts…As it relates to God…it means you are either analyzing His existence from physical evidences like creation itself(making logical arguments of their existence, essence and perculiar organization like similarity in language, mating, etc) or you witnessed first hand the existence of God Himself(you were there when He came into existence).
We can safely say a Fool is one who; 1. Does not have or show any experience in the subject matter(the existence of God) in discuss; 2. And therefore does not have knowledge(of God’s existence) and therefore does not possess good judgement; 3. And so is not alert to nor aware of the subject matter in it’s true essence.
Do you now understand why those who truly disbelieve the existence Jehovah God are called FOOLS.
Which one are you?
