In Scripture, folly is a moral issue, and not a question of IQ deficiencies. The word anoetos means foolish, which is how is it rendered most of the time. Paul says that the Galatians, when they were drifting away from the gospel of free grace, were being foolish. “O foolish Galatians . . . are you so foolish?” (Gal. 3:1,3). Those who have a lust for wealth fall into temptations, snares, and many foolish and hurtful lusts” (1 Tim. 6:9). Before we were converted, Paul says, we were foolish, disobedient and deceived (Tit. 3:3).
The word is translated as fools in Luke 24:25, where the risen Jesus is speaking to His followers on the Emmaus road. “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”
And the same word is rendered as unwise in Romans 1, where Paul says that he is a debtor to Greeks and barbarians both, to both the wise and the unwise (1:14).