Question

Every so often I find myself at family meals that slide into discussions of heresy and faith. On the religious side of the table there’s a family with several small, cute children who are being educated in a Talmud Torah school. Very often you hear their parents say things like: “Don’t hit!!! We’re not gentiles!!!” “May the Merciful One bring the entire Jewish people back in repentance, except for the gentiles, who are the husk of Amalek,” “Secular people don’t study Torah, and that’s why most theft and crime are found among them, but among the religious there is respect, modesty, kindness, etc.” “Someone who studies Torah understands from the Torah all the sciences in the world. Those who study at university for years eventually discover that everything is written in the Torah and are stunned.” “You don’t need proofs for faith; our intellect is flawed. We have the righteous sages, and they said there is a God, so that’s enough for us! Want proof? Here: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’—that’s our proof!”
The atheistic side of the family is… well… standard atheistic: well-versed in the writings of Rabbi Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, and drawing deeply from the teachings of the late Hitchens, of blessed memory, etc.
A small example from today’s conversation: “How do you know Judaism is the true religion? There are lots of Muslims and Christians too—maybe they’re right?” Answer (?): “They’ll get Gehenna, because if they were really praying, God would let them convert.”
“Where was God in the Holocaust?” “The Rebbe of Gur said that because they didn’t guard their tongues in the synagogue, this disaster came upon Ashkenazi Jewry.” “So then the Nazis aren’t guilty?” “They are cruel by nature, and therefore they will receive punishment for wanting to kill.”
“If everything is written in the Torah, how is it that no scientists and doctors grow out of the yeshivot?” “First of all, regarding scientists, all science exists thanks to the Torah. As is well known, Jews receive the Nobel Prize because they studied Talmud. As for doctors, before going into surgery, people go ask a rabbi for a blessing, because everyone knows that without the blessing of a Torah scholar, nothing is worth anything. Ask doctors in hospitals—they’ll all tell you there is a God in the world; they’re the biggest believers. They see miracles every day.”
This is only a tiny sample of the more reasonable things that come forth from his holy mouth….
I went into more detail about the religious side because many times I hear the atheistic questions and the stupid answers coming from the religious side, and I keep quiet because most of the time the little children are with us, and they’re happy that their father has such decisive answers that satisfy them. It’s infuriating to see the Torah trampled there, and to see the questioners smiling from ear to ear when they hear these things. Am I allowed to step in and say what I think from time to time? Most of what I know comes from you.
I’m asking because on the one hand I’m afraid the parents’ authority will be undermined and the children’s worldview will get confused: their father tells them one thing, and suddenly they’ll hear that gentiles are no less wise than their rabbi? That secular people are no less moral than we are? That even the Sages can make mistakes? That the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot create a square triangle? That even righteous rabbis did not believe that a leaf falls onto a worm through individual providence? Of course, from their point of view all of this is absolute heresy and apostasy, no matter what the explanation is.
On the other hand, the desecration of God’s name is terrible beyond words.