The Many Faces, and Causes, of Unbelief - Apologetics Press

Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount, warned that “narrow is
the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there
are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14). Guy N. Woods observed
that this injunction
...was designed to guard the Lord’s people from the
corrupting influences of an evil environment, as well
as from the powerful appeals of mob psychology to
which so many in every generation succumb.... Man,
by nature, is a social and gregarious being, tending to
flock or gather together with others of his kind.... Man
may, and often does, imbibe the evil characteristics
of those about him as readily, and often more so, than
the good ones (1982, 124[1]:2).
When the apostle Paul penned his first epistle to the Christians
in Corinth, he warned:
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning will I bring to
naught. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where
is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? For seeing that in the
wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew
not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe (1 Corinthians
1:19-21).
It should not surprise us that many “intelligent” people view
belief in God as the fool’s way out. Paul also commented that
not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called: but God chose the foolish
things of the world, that he might put to shame them
that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the
world, that he might put to shame the things that are
strong (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).
The most intelligent often are the least spiritual because “the
god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) has blinded their
minds.
We must not fall prey to mob psychology which suggests
because “everyone is doing it” that somehow makes it right.
The graduate student said, “I do not want to be a fool.” It was
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