Helping my friend

[John89]

my friend says the reason he doesnt believe in God is because, if there was a God, then why would he let bad things happen to innocent people…if you try explaining the free will aspect to him he just discards it all and says thats not good enough… he says he is agnostic… what could i say to my friend that will hopefully change his mind and bring him to Christianity ??? thx God bless

 

[Calliope]

I think it is less an issue of free will and more an issue of your friend (and they are not alone in this) having a very immature and earth bound understanding of God.

Many people want and expect God to be the perfect HUMAN parent they never had, and that is neither his role or purpose. God is eternal, and deals with eternal issues.

 

[mahoneyt]

Ask them, “If there is no God then why can’t I do bad things to innocent people?”

As the Christian deals with the problem of evil, so too does the athiest deal with problem of morality. With out religion there is no ethical structure to socieity. You can have morals, but the question of why you have them need to be answered. In fact I really dont understand why non-christians don’t break more laws. There are no rules, the government can change rules whenever, go do whatever you want. The modern athiest wants to reject god and build a new western culture, at the same time though they thank God for giving them such a stable western culture to work with.
But be polite, relationship is key. Take em to soup kitchens, service based projects, hell put em charge of those projects. Show him the love of Jesus, don’t just tell em.

 

[VociMike]

Ask your friend, if he were God, what would he do differently? What would he do about evil, suffering and death? And would people actually be better in his world? Or would they be worse in his world?