Q. When an atheist or nonbeliever asks me what evidence I have that God exists, I give the following reply. Why do you think of this response? — R.E.J., Florida.
A. Here is R.E.J.’s reply:
“I say have you any idea how many people there are in the world? That’s right, over seven billion. Google reports that in the world 107 baby boys are born to every 100 girls. The major difference in the numbers is that in some countries, like Communist China, baby boys are more desired than baby girls. If nothing was done to eliminate baby girls, the number would be more even. Now my question to you is who decides whether a baby boy or girl will form in its mother’s womb? There is silence from just about everyone I pose this question to because there is only one answer, God. Why? Because it guarantees that the human species He created will continue to live and inhabit the Earth.”
Your response would come under one of the traditional proofs for the existence of God, that of Intelligent Design. Just as the design of a computer implies the existence of an intelligent designer, so does the order in the universe imply an Intelligent Designer. And so does the design of the human body, all of whose parts concur in a wonderful manner to bring about one complete organism. Look at the eye, for example. The act of seeing presupposes each time the simultaneous presence of 13 different conditions. So, too, the development of the child in the womb, where major physiological changes must take place to bring forth a healthy baby. Any attempt to ascribe these remarkable happenings to chance is ludicrous. They are the work of a loving Intelligent Designer whom we call God.
Q. We were always taught that the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Jesus, so what are we to make of Pope Francis’ statement that all religions are willed by God? Isn’t that the same as saying that one religion is as good or true as another or that all religions lead to Heaven? I’m confused. — M.M.C., via e-mail.
A. So are a lot of people. The puzzling statement appeared in a document entitled Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. It was signed by the Holy Father and a Muslim grand imam on February 4, 2019 following an interreligious gathering in the United Arab Emirates. Here are the words from that document:
“The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race, and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected….”
The Pontiff said later that he was not referring to God’s positive will, which would mandate a diversity of religions, but to His permissive will, which would allow such diversity. We are afraid that such a distinction will be lost on many people who read those words, and who can blame them for thinking that Pope Francis believes that one religion is as good as another? However, that is not what the Church has taught for twenty centuries.
For example, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) stated that the Catholic Church “is the unique Church of Christ which in the Creed we avow as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. After His Resurrection, our Savior handed her over to Peter to be shepherded (John 21:17), commissioning him and the other apostles to propagate and govern her (cf. Matt. 28:18 ff.). Her He erected for all ages as the ‘pillar and mainstay of the truth’ (1 Tim. 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in union with that successor, although many elements of sanctification and of truth can be found outside of her visible structure” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, n. 8).
In its Declaration on Religious Freedom, the Council said that “God himself has made known to mankind the way in which men are to serve him, and thus be saved in Christ and come to blessedness. We believe that this one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men” (n. 1). And in its Decree on Ecumenism, Vatican II said that “it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the all-embracing means of salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained” (n. 3).
So what’s wrong with the opinion that all religions are essentially the same and offer an equally good path to Heaven? Well, for one thing, different religions teach very different and sometimes contradictory things. People in various religions might be very sincere in what they believe, but when two beliefs contradict each other, one religion has to be wrong, no matter how sincere its members are.
For example, some religions teach that Jesus is God; some teach He is not God. One side has to be wrong. Some religions teach that there is a Hell; some say there is no Hell. Both can’t be right. Some religions say that abortion is good; some say it is evil. One side is wrong. Yes, there are good and sincere persons in all religions, and God will reward them accordingly. But their sincerity cannot change what is objectively false.
Does it make a difference which religion you belong to? Yes, it does. If Jesus is God, and we believe that He is, and if Jesus founded a Church to carry on His work in the world, and we believe that He did, then will He look favorably on churches or religions that do not believe He is God, or that reject things that He specifically taught? Jesus described Himself as “the way and the truth and the life,” and He revealed many truths to us. Is it likely that He will look with approval on those who say it doesn’t matter what you believe?
It does make a difference to Him what we believe and what church we choose to belong to because there is only one Church founded by Him, one Church that is His Mystical Body on Earth, and that is the Catholic Church.
One Pope who thought that it made a difference was St. John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963. In his 1959 encyclical (To the Chair of Peter), he said that it is “absurd” to think that one religion is just as good as another because it makes “no distinction between truth and falsehood.” He said that such an attitude is aimed at “the destruction of all religions, but particularly the Catholic Church, which cannot be placed on a level with other religions without serious injustice, since it alone is true.”
St. John XXIII then asked, “How can God, who is truth, approve or tolerate the indifference, neglect, and sloth of those who attach no importance to matters upon which our eternal salvation depends?”
If we want to get to Heaven, doesn’t it make sense to choose the religion with the fullest knowledge of what God wants? If your eternal salvation is important, why would you choose a religion (like Islam) that doesn’t believe Jesus is God? Or that doesn’t believe in Purgatory or in Hell? Or that doesn’t believe in Confession to a priest — all doctrines that are clearly taught in the Bible? Isn’t it more important to seek the truth that will set us free than to sign documents with a leader of a movement that is the sworn enemy of human fraternity?
Another problem with the Human Fraternity document is that it once again portrays Islam in a favorable light, as a religion of peace rather than a movement for world domination. The document opens with a paraphrase of a frequently quoted verse from the Koran: “Whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as having saved all mankind” (5:32). But as William Kilpatrick has pointed out, there’s no mention of the very next verse: “Those that make war against God and His Apostle and spread disorder in the land shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides” (5:33).
“The astonishing ignorance of these basic teachings on the part of Pope Francis and his advisers,” said Kilpatrick, “doesn’t make for a more harmonious world; it makes for a more dangerous one.”
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