There is, of course, no necessary link between what we want to be true, and what is true, and so it is a red herring to talk about desire in the way that Baddiel does. Rather, I’d prefer to know what he thinks about the many arguments for God’s existence, which include: The experience of billions of people throughout the world and throughout history: Christianity offers a real, living God who can be (and is) experienced today. That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. Faith in football … Ian Broudie, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel launch their recording of the Three Lions anthem for the 1998 World Cup. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

Published in the same format, The God Desire is chatty, jokey and, beneath, deeply felt. The blurb says it is “more vulnerable – and more understanding of the power and value of religion – than most atheist polemics”, which presumably means the work of Richard Dawkins and his ilk. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, … He has written four novels: Time for Bed, Whatever Love Means, The Secret Purposes and The Death of Eli Gold.Some later accounts differed, however. Many Greek writers said that Pothos was the son of Zephyrus, the West Wind, and Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Left with no choice, Psyche approached Aphrodite for help. Aphrodite showed the heartbroken princess no mercy and only agreed to help her if she completed the series of trials. As predicted, Nicaea rejected the advances of the god. Dionysus made the spirit drink wine and made her drunk. Dionysus had his way with her and left, leaving Nicaea to search for him to exact her revenge. Eros, Dionysus, and Aura

These gods who still whisper in our ears tell us we are never really forgiven, that we can never really be healed. They tell us we have gone too far and done too badly. They tell us to try harder, work more consistently, sacrifice more, fast, pray, flagellate.But even its target audience of atheists will find it insubstantial, for Baddiel has made as little effort to understand them as he has the ­God-botherers (in a recent interview, he admitted that he hasn’t “really read Voltaire”). In the first of a new series, Aleem Maqbool speaks to David Baddiel about his book "The God Desire". A second myth that involves Eros and Dionysus revolves around Dionysus and his all-consuming desire for a maiden nymph called Aura. Aura, whose name means breeze, is the daughter of the Titan Lelantos. Aristophanes attributes the creation of Eros to another primordial deity, Nyx/night. According to Aristophanes, Eros is born from a silver egg laid by the primordial goddess of night, Nyx in Erebus, the primordial god of darkness. In this version of creation, Eros emerges from the silver egg with golden wings. Eros and the Greek Philosophers