How do I answer a friend who believes that God doesn't interact with the world?

[kfiona]

I am having difficulty answering an agnostic. She will accept that there may be a God, but then sees Him as a being that doesn’t interact with the world. In other words, he creates us but doesn’t pay any more attention to us. If he is so far away from us and infinitely great, why should we spend time trying to talk to Him, or why would he listen? Where do you start with someone like this?

 

[Jim_Blackburn]

Your friend suffers from the illusion of deism.

[D]eism not only distinguishes the world and God as effect and cause; it emphasizes the transcendence of the Deity at the sacrifice of His indwelling and His providence. He is apart from the creation which He brought into being, and unconcerned as to the details of its working. Having made Nature, He allows it to run its own course without interference on His part. In this point the doctrine of deism differs clearly from that of theism. (From the original Catholic Encyclopedia article Deism)

The Catechism describes deism this way: “Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a watchmaker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself” (CCC 285).

To deists, prayer is futile. After all, God is uninvolved with the world he created. But since your friend at least concedes that God may exist, you have a common belief from which to start. Explain to your friend that Christians believe that God revealed himself to mankind so that we can know him and interact with him. Eventually, he came to live with us for a time as the man Jesus who taught us how to pray. Here are a couple of resources that should be helpful in getting started:

Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Mere Christianity