[Apologetics] Your help with an apologetics question

[Art Kelly]

I have a question from a friend that I would like your assistance in answering.
 
My friend, who I’ve known a long time, was an Eastern rite Catholic (I don’t know what religious education he had growing up) who became enamored with Robert Schuler and then John Hagee and is now an agnostic.
 
I’m not sure, but perhaps his lack of belief in God is somehow related to deep depression which struck him two and half years ago and for which he is taking prescription medicine.
 
I have an expertise in some aspects of Catholic vs. Protestant apologetics, but I’ve never really had a discussion/dialog/debate with anyone who doubted the existence of God.  Obviously, Catholics and Protestants believe in the Holy Trinity, so whatever disagreements we have are relatively minor when contrasted with someone who does not believe in God.
 
To me, the existence of God is so evident, I really cannot relate to someone who is an atheist or agnostic.  When you look at the world with all of its complex life forms, including human beings, it is totally inconceivable that this could have happened through random chance.  There must have been a supreme being who created all of this.
 
People who think this is all some kind of cosmic coincidence are extremely unreasonable.  I don’t know how to get through to people like that.
 
Anyway, my friend’s question to me is:  
 
If there is a God, how could he ignore the prayers of the devout Jews in Hitler’s concentration camps and allow all of these people to be killed in the gas chambers?
 
He further asked:  If your answer that God created the world but does not intervene in it, then why should we pray to him?
 
My friend is of Lebanese descent and told me that, when he posed the question to Arab friends, they replied that all things that happen are God’s will.  They told him that every squirrel that dies does so because of God’s will.
 
In regard to those who perished in the Holocaust, this tragedy has not disturbed the belief in God among Jews, so why would it bother my friend?  That leads me to believe that he found this question in some atheist publication or website.
 
Since my friend doubts the existence of God, he does not regard Scripture to be inspired, so quotations from the Bible are of no use in persuading him.
 
I have a reply to his question, but thought perhaps you might come up with additional comments that would be better than mine or, at least, supplemental to my answer to him.
 
I will compile all of the thoughts I receive and then send my friend a comprehensive answer to his question.
 
My reply would be:
 
God does not control everything that happens on earth.  We are not puppets, whose every action is because of strings that are pulled by God.  
 
Furthermore, God does NOT will evil. I can assure you it is NOT God’s will that anyone be robbed or killed.
 
God created humans with a free will.  They can choose to do good or evil.  God provides actual grace to help us do good and to repent of our sins, but we are free to reject that grace and act in opposite ways.
 
At the same time, God hears and answers every prayer.  In come cases, he may answer a prayer in a different way than we asked for, but every prayer is heard and answered.
 
God can see that, sometimes, what we have asked for is not in our long-range best interest, so he gives us something else instead.
 
Those Jews (and others, including Catholics, such as Father Maximilian Kolbe) who died in the gas chambers will certainly share eternal life with God if they had true contrition for their sins.  Since everyone will die, the only question is why their lives were shortened by years or decades.
 
While we cannot know the mind of God, it is possible that the horrible events of the Holocaust will serve as a reminder to mankind throughout history and be a deterrent to some future atrocities.  The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. reminds us of what happened during World War II.  
 
It could be that, because of the deaths of many religious people at the hands of Hitler and his associates, the lives of many millions of other people for centuries to come may be spared that otherwise would have perished.
 
I would appreciate your thoughts on my answer, including anything you would like to add or change.  If you have a completely different answer, I’d like to see that too.
 
If you would be willing to talk with my friend, please let me know. I can make your name and phone number available to him, if you’d like.  I don’t know if he would talk with you, since he does not know you, but if he would, you might be able to explain things to him orally in such a way that would sense to him.
 
Thanks,
Art


      
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