An article appeared in the newspaper during the week. It spoke of a campaign soon to be conducted by British atheists. The organizers hope to run more than five thousand ads over January, with the message: ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’

Over the years there have been many attempts to prove God exists.

Some, like Thomas Aquinas, claim something must have caused the universe to come into existence. Nothing can come from nothing. And that something they believe is God.

Others base their proof on the complexity of the universe. William Paley, for instance, used the analogy of a watchmaker in an attempt to show that God is the designer of the universe.

And still others argue for God’s existence by reference to a sense of right and wrong, or to religious experiences and miracles, or through a process of deduction from the meaning of the word ‘God’.

But if you were to ask: are these proofs conclusive? The answer is no.

John McDade, in his opening address to students at Heythrop College two years ago, told us an interesting story. He spoke of a French film called Ridicule. In it a priest gives a lecture to the King and the nobility proving the existence of God. The talk ends with the priest saying, ‘And so God exists.’ To which the whole court rises to its feet in acclamation.

Then, a moment later, carried away by the applause, the priest cries out, ‘And if you want the opposite, I can prove that too.’ To which the people respond by throwing him out of the court for being a charlatan.

It is a poignant moment, and what it shows is clever arguments neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. God is simply not an object to be dissected like anything else we know.

The other night I was listening to a repeat of the Darwin lectures. The host opened the series by saying something I thought quite profound. He said, ‘It is utterly impossible to disprove the existence of God. God is just not something science is equipped to discuss.’

It is a comment the English mystic, Evelyn Underhill, would surely agree with. In one of her books, she writes: ‘If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped.’

The contention ‘God is greater than we can conceive’ is supported by the writers of the Bible. They don’t bother themselves with arguments for God’s existence. God exists, that’s that! They are more interested in what this means for everyday living.

This is why the greatest commandment is an imperative. ‘Love the Lord your God.’ It is an act of the will involving every part of ourselves.

As we heard this verse is picked up by Jesus in our gospel. He goes on to say love of God is not simply a matter of clever words or arguments. It informs our whole life, and is expressed in our love for one another.

With this in mind, I suggest the campaign soon to be run in London is misleading. Yes, it is true, we cannot prove God exists, but this is not to say there is no God. Such a claim, in fact, requires as much faith as the opposite.

And to sit on the fence, to commit ourselves neither one way nor the other because the evidence is inconclusive, to say there is probably no God, is to fail to grasp what it means to have faith.

Faith seeks understanding; and it involves a total commitment to life.

But not only is the campaign misleading, I suggest it is also not true. It equates religious belief with worrying and not enjoying life. You have to wonder what this is based on - certainly not sound evidence!

For the Bible claims, as do believers throughout the ages, the essence of what it is to be human is found in a relationship with God.

Jesus says, for example, in John’s Gospel ‘I have come that you may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.’

And St Augustine, perhaps the greatest Christian thinkers, writes of God: ‘You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’

In other words, we are created to find our fulfillment in God.

Some of you may remember a series of DVDs I showed a few years ago. The study looked at the lives of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. It examined how our response to the question ‘does God exist?’ shapes our approach to life; it influences how we see ourselves and the way we relate to others; and it informs our values and the views we hold.

What is interesting is C.S. Lewis was once an atheist. He came to faith only in his late twenties. He describes his experience like a waking up, discovering a joy deeper than happiness. ‘I believe in God,’ he was to go on to write, ‘as I believe the sun has risen; not because I can see it, but because by way of it I can see everything else.’

To believe is to live and to see life afresh.

This brings me back to our gospel. The words Jesus says in our gospel are found also in Luke; but there the context is different. Again Jesus is confronted by teachers of the law, but this time they ask him, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

It is a question we might well ask: what must I do to know true life?

Jesus doesn’t answer this question immediately. Instead he throws it back at his questioner, who says, ‘Love God with your whole being and your neighbour as yourself.’

And it is only then Jesus replies. He says: ‘Do this and you will live.’

So don’t be put off by those who dispute the existence of God. A God who can be understood may simply be too small to be worshipped. And don’t be mislead by those who claim religious belief is for those who do not enjoy life. Jesus came to bring us life.

Instead have faith in God. Be confident and full of hope. Don’t be afraid to open yourselves to the source of all love and joy and peace. Seek to live each day in God’s presence, love others as yourself, for in living in such a way Jesus tells us we will discover what we were created to be.

That’s the good news of the gospel.

A sermon preached in St Alban’s Anglican Church, on Sunday 26 October 2008, by the Ven. Damon Plimmer.

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