"why would you go want to go to church? Haven't you heard of Bill Maher?"

  this past Sunday morning I was honoured with the opportunity to preach about Colossians 3:1-11 at church.  While I was a few blocks away from church I decided to pop into Starbucks and have a coffee and review my notes.  There was a guy sitting in one of the big comfy chairs and had his jacket covering the chair next to him.  I asked if I could sit next to him and he relied yes as long as wasn't going to be speaking on the phone.  I said "I wont be on the phone but I will be mumbling a bit because I'm going to speaking at church this morning and need to review my notes."  He laughed out loud and very loudly said "why would you want to go to church? Haven't you heard of Bill Maher?" 

I replied yes, and that it is a regular thing for me to watch his movie "religulous" with people and talk about how easy it is to refute his claims in the movie.  The man then said "well Bill has shown that God doesn't exist because there is no evidence for him and he has shown that church is a big sham." 

I said the reason that I go to church is closely connected to what I was talking about that morning which was that I believe we can know that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

I then said "well as a Christian I search for truth in history, evidence, science and reason.  I respect your opinion, but I don't search for truth in the claims of a stand up comic, I would rather study the work of scholars.  So lets talk about evidence for God, but first what kind of evidence would you be looking for?  Because it has been my experience that if I start speaking about scientific evidence people sometimes then switch the category and say they want legal evidence.  So what should we speak about?"

He then got up and said "I'm leaving, I don't want to get into this with you"  I then said "I'm sorry to hear that, but my church is right down the street I hope you will come join us."  But the man left and I kept and eye out for him while I was speaking but didn't see him.

So, there isn't really any apologetic teaching in this blog here except to show that most people don't have arguments against god.  Most people just have a reason that they have an idea they have latched onto but have never really explored and looked into.  I think this is also true for some Christians.  But as Christians, we are all called to be apologists and and "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" 1Peter 3:15 

Also I would highly recommend you to watch Bill Maher's movie Religulous and see if you could answer his objections if he were to meet you and ask you questions about your faith.  Would you be ready to give an answer when asked about the reason for the hope you have?  Would your answer be blind faith? or would you have solid ground to stand on?