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You pick your version of the Bible and I'll pick mine. Isn't that how Christian apologetics works?
Romans 1: 22 - 23
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
Its about people belonging to the Roman mystery cults who worship images of the "emperor" (a mortal human being) and gods in animal-form. Not atheists. The people he is referring to worship "gods", they are polytheists - and not even meaning all idolaters, for he later notes that there are ones who will be excused on the day of judgement for living morally in accordance with their conscience.
Paul's description above is derived from chapters 13-15 of the Wisdom of Solomon, which is specifically about pagan idolatry in those specific chapters (although the earlier chapter 2 also refers to Jewish mortalists and Greek atomists who reject belief in an afterlife). Wisdom 13 states, in part:
But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are those
who give the name “gods” to the works of human hands,
gold and silver fashioned with skill,
and likenesses of animals,
or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand...
He forms it in the likeness of a human being,
14 or makes it like some worthless animal,
giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red
and covering every blemish in it with paint;
15 then he makes a suitable niche for it,
and sets it in the wall, and fastens it there with iron
Ancient cities were full of temples and shrines with images of gods and goddesses worshipped in the form cats, jackals, crocodiles, serpents: Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Mithras with his sacred bull and so on. Mystery cults like Mithraism.
His discussion of alleged sexual debauchery must also be understood in the context of these idolatrous cults. These are exactly the sort of things that went on in and around some (not all, obviously) pagan temples throughout the Mediterranean world in Paul's time, as at the time of the writer of the Book of Wisdom, which goes into rather more detail than Paul does:
Wisdom 14
For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
16 Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshiped....
Then the ambition of the artisan impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship...
and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom, shortly before,
they had honored as a human being....
Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,
but though living in great strife due to ignorance,
they call such great evils peace.
23 For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,
or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,
24 they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,
but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,
25 and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
26 confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors,
defiling of souls, sexual perversion,
disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
27 For the worship of idols not to be named
is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
28 For their worshipers either rave in exultation,
or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;
29 for because they trust in lifeless idols
they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.
But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:
because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols,
and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
Both texts, Wisdom and Romans, are therefore talking strictly about idolatrous pagan worship of kings/emperors as living gods in the form of carved images (as well as animal images) in the context of mystery cults with secretive rituals characterized by sacrifices, violence and frenzied sexual debauchery.
I would be very interested to hear about any atheists who "worship kings/emperors as living gods in the form of carved images (as well as animal images) in the context of mystery cults with secretive rituals characterized by sacrifices, violence and frenzied sexual debauchery"... I must admit that I've yet to come across any but maybe I just haven't hung around (yet!) with such fun people
What is an atheist supposed to know that they are with no excuse? No excuse for what?
Most often the verse has been used to say that everyone knows God created them. If so, it's completely false. What do you interpret it to mean?
You can't prove that everyone has an understanding of God creating things, because that's false. I was an atheist for decades. Now I'm theist and I still don't see any of these invisible signs of creation.
Of course you don't. It's part of your chosen beliefs.
Yes it exposes some people as not being Christian and part of it as false. Why you bring up homosexuals in this, we can only hazard a guess.
Repeating what you wrote earlier on what you believe.
That's not really true, many homosexuals believe in God whether you have heard of them or not.
It's not a fact. Many believe it just because they feel it gives them the right to judge and condemn other people. Romans 1:20 is false. What proof do you have of it being true, except you believing it on faith?
For sure the Common English Bible has it right! Everyone else was, in essence, was saying "Not sure what kind but it might be but it might have been".
I know where your going with this but I'm not in agreement with some of your presumptions on people's motives. There are theists who are asking the same questions about certain verses regarding unbelief. I'm sorry but saying homosexuality is some sort of curse needs proving, that they "have no excuse" and they are "exposed" ok I get it but the OP specifically avoids using authority as a scapegoat for honest discussion. If you were to say that theists are not real theists unless they are Christian, that might be more in line with what Romans one is trying to say which is when you have theists asking you questions about it. Having an accusatory tone towards atheists or lesbians is not the aim here.
I don't.
First of all, I really like your post overall-- that's the good news.
Now for the bad.]
Because beliefs have consequences, both in terms of our own personal character plus how we may deal with others. Neither our beliefs nor our actions operate alone. How we may interpret the scriptures is not entirely just personal, thus we have seen religious beliefs being used for both good and evil.