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...The withered man has said in his heart, "There is no God";
The “withered” man has already said often “There is no God.” Atheism is not a new idea. It has always shown its face whenever men “withered”; i.e., whenever human beings have come to a state of mental and moral degeneration.
It is clear that NAVAL [see words] here does not denote only one individual, but the majority of a whole generation of men.
NAVAL, derived from NAVEL - "to wither", denotes the disappearance of unfettered moral strength. Man no longer draws from his sense of duty the power to master his urges and desires and to be a free agent as regards his moral acts. Like a withered leaf, he has become the plaything of influence from within and without. He has lost his free moral self-determination and thus has forfeited the divine spark within him. Al his thoughts and aspirations have succumbed to a sort of physical slavery. For it is not intellect which raises man above the rest of Creation or elevates him to the level of “the image of God”. Intellect is a faculty that he shares with any lowly beast. What makes him similar to God is the ability to say “no” to evil despite all its glamor. It is his joyous determination to say “yes” to all that is good, regardless of the hardships and sacrifices involved. It is this free personal mastery over his physical sphere of influence on earth which makes man similar to God and which implants in his breast the realization that he was indeed created in the image of God.