...there is no God. (Ps. 14.1)
Psalm 14 is not an attack on atheists. It is a complaint about people who "do abominable deeds" without considering that they will have to answer for them. And it is certainly not a suggestion that atheists are in some sense mentally handicapped. But it makes a good start for an article.
In the psalmist's day, people might well act as if there was no God, but would never have questioned God's very existence. Today, what do we say to people who "say there is no God"? Here are just a few thoughts.
"Evolution has disproved the whole story of creation."
The Old Testament contains at least three "stories of creation", and none of these makes any reference to the processes involved.
What the writers are trying to show is that the sun, the moon and the sea are not objects to be worshipped, but part of the world around us, a world where God is always present.
Images of a heavenly watchmaker or of the source of all order are possible ways of thinking of the "creator of heaven and earth", but they are not the only ones.
"No scientific instrument has detected any sign of God."
Science, as we know it, is one way of describing the world around us.
Some "signs of God" can be measured, but most cannot.
Science cannot explain why someone might be happier receiving a gift of a dozen red roses rather than eleven wilted dandelions, but few people would deny that there is a difference between the two gifts.
If it cannot be scientifically quantified, that does not mean it does not exist.
"The Bible is inconsistent and untrue."
Christians have hindered the Bible's message by failing to look behind the words to what the writers were trying to say.
The Bible is about God's work of salvation, and not about how many days it rained on Noah's ark or who "Belshazzar the king" really was.
The Bible is not the centre of our faith - Jesus is.
Think of the Bible more as a guidebook, with its own emphases, its own interests, its own viewpoints.
"Real people are not born by angels making promises to virgins (and angels don't exist anyway).
And real people don't come back to life when they have died."
The centre of our faith is that Jesus was at the same time God and a real person.
All Christians believe that in Jesus, God shared in our existence, and in dying, took part on our behalf in the pain caused by the wrongs of the world, And that he overcame them.
The mechanics, as told by Matthew and Luke in particular, are hard to fit in with our view of the universe, but this does not invalidate the underlying truth.
"If God was good, there wouldn't be so much suffering around."
It's not God that causes the suffering, it's us, and the sooner we do something about it, the better!
"Jesus was just a man, like Mohammed or Buddha, and didn't say anything new."
Christians are interested in who Jesus was, what Jesus did, and how we can follow him.
We do not, and cannot, know whether Jesus said "anything new" - and his message "Do to others as you want people to do to you" could have been said by anyone.
But Jesus calls us to follow him to the grave, and beyond.
And beyond is a new world where our past life is forgotten.
This is our hope, and this is what it is all about.
So join us on the way.
It is a voyage of surprises and discoveries, and could even get you to where you want to be!
HD