An important rule that atheists constantly ignore is that context matters. You cannot just cut up the Bible until it says what you want it to say, in order to make God appear as the most evil character in all of literature. But no matter how hard you try, atheists just do not seem to understand this. The word "context" is repeated so often, it has become a tired cliché. It almost seems as if it can be used as a counter to any argument against scripture, simply because the majority of atheist arguments against scripture take the verse out of context. And atheists still continue to do this.
A strategy I have developed recently in an attempt to impress the importance of context upon said atheists is to simply take them out of context until they start to understand. Making liberal use of the copy and paste function, I cut up their words in the same way they cut up God's words until they appear to be the monsters they want God to be. And they make it so easy. All you have to do is cut out "the Bible says", and make it look like the atheist's personal opinion. When an atheist says "the Bible says it's ok to smash babies against rocks", just copy "it's ok to smash babies against rocks", and attribute that quote to the atheist. "You're taking me out of context!" Yes. Do you understand now?
Repeat as needed. The truth is, the Bible almost never says what the atheist claims it does. The smashing babies against rocks? That's from Psalm 137:9. Now, the first thing to note is the source of the verse. It's from Psalm 137. Psalm 137. What is a Psalm? It's a song, or a poem. In other words, it's not to be taken literally. One must meditate on the Psalms to ascertain their true meaning. So already we see that this is not saying it's ok to smash babies against the rocks.
Note also the 9 in "Psalm 137:9". What that 9 tells us is that there are 8 verses preceding this one that might help us understand what it means. In fact, verse 9 is the last verse in this particular Psalm. So, what is the full context? It is a Psalm of captivity. The author has personally witnessed some very horrible things. His own people have had their lands ravaged, and their babies smashed against rocks. And now, having taken the survivors captive, they have had the cheek to ask said captives to sing one of their cultural songs (verse 3). And so, in verse 8, the Psalmist writes "O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!" (emphasis mine). And that's when verse 9 comes.
And so we see that Psalm 137:9, far from being a command to smash babies against rocks, or even a claim that God personally approves of such actions, is actually the expression of a poet's grief, having been a victim of war. Therefore, just as the atheist was not saying it is ok to smash babies against rocks, neither is the Bible. Context matters, and in context, that is not what it was saying at all. And there are only two categories of atheists: Those who know it, and those who don't.
Those who know it, needless to say, are too far gone to reach with truth. If you are willing to lie in order to make the Bible look like an evil book, what can be said to you? You're a liar, and liars lie. But those who don't know it have their own heart issue to wrestle with. Look how easily we put that verse back into context. All we did was read it in context. But those who didn't know the context obviously didn't discover the verse by studying. They swallowed it up like a sugar coated cyanide pill. Why? Because in truth, the heart of the ignorant atheist is no less sinful than the heart of the liar. You rushed to take that verse out of context because you didn't 0 about the context. You want Christianity to be false, and so you jump on anything, no matter how weak, to make it appear so. Be grateful the Lord Himself is not so quick to twist you.
But in truth, He does not need to, for a sinner you are, and so a sinner you must be judged as. Yet this is not good for you, because the wages of sin is death. But God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God prefers to give life, and so He made a way. Jesus suffered the death you deserve, leaving the life He deserves available to you. Repent of your sin, confess Him as Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead. If you do that, God will remove you from the context of your sin, and grant you eternal life. That, my friends, is a gift worth grabbing.