Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence [Paperback]

Lawrence Kelemen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1990

Four rational approaches to G-d's existence, particularly important for anyone involved in outreach.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Targum Press; 2nd edition (January 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944070558
• ISBN-13: 978-0944070550
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accomplishes its limited aim., March 7, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence (Paperback)

In this slim volume, Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen sets out to grant "permission to believe" to those who would believe in God if they didn't think theism was irrational and/or unscientific.

He succeeds in his limited aim, namely, that of providing short overviews of broad areas of thought (e.g. morality, cosmology, teleology) that tend to converge on theistic belief. And he is sometimes incisive in his critiques of opposing viewpoints.

But not always. For example, in his opening chapter he argues that atheism is irrational, on the (sole) grounds that positive knowledge of God's nonexistence would require an exhaustive knowledge of everything that exists. But we can know that, say, there are no square circles without knowing _everything_ there is; what if -- as some atheists allege -- the idea of God is somehow self-contradictory? It isn't, but R. Kelemen doesn't address the point at all.

Similarly his views on "morality" depend on an odd view of reason that already concedes too much to the other side. Reason is not an adequate foundation for morality, he argues, because (in effect) "reason" really amounts to nothing more than logical deduction.

Here I'm afraid he missed an opportunity to argue for God based on the very _rationality_ of ethics (and Torah ethics in particular). Indeed, the existence of rationality itself could have been the foundation for a powerful argument; in Maimonidean tradition, the faculty of reason is the precise respect in which humans are said to be made in God's image. Here as before, R. Kelemen seems to depend on an inadequate (and thoroughly "modern" and "secularist") account of reason and rationality.

But we should not make too much of such oversights. R. Kelemen's goal was not to provide a solid and irrefutable case for theistic belief, but only to provide a short introduction to several fruitful lines of thought that suggest the rationality of theism. His book will be useful to those who have never considered such arguments before, though anyone seriously pursuing these topics will undoubtedly want to move on to other literature.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought for one who is willing to think, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence (Paperback)

Since I got this book,I've read it a few times,concentrating on the information it presents and analyzing it in relation to my worldviews.I find all that he says to be compelling one to research it further,if one is willing to be honest with himself.The book itself is written in an understandable language,which is often a problem with other books on this subject. I think it should be read by one who is willing to honestly consider the possibility of G-d's existence.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars leave the "blind faith" principle behind before reading this, June 7, 2001

By 

Mordechaiipa "mordechai_ipa" (Mitzpe Nevo, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence (Paperback)

This is an excellent book that introduces you to the basics of belief (and not blind faith) in God. It is suitable for everyone that wishes to try and leave the "blind faith" principle of The Church behind and start to really think. Yes, there will be questions afterwards, many of them. That's just fine. It just means that one should go and learn more about God, this time without blinkers.

A reviewer from the UK wrote, "For those who are familiar with the philosophy of Randian Objectivism this philosophy will be weak. For those without a deep understanding of science or philosophy this book will be very persuasive. This book must be read critically and the science used must be questioned."

If the reviewer found the arguments weak he either does not fully appreciate the illogical conclusions of Ayn Rand which is that "Life is meaningless and I refuse to even consider any other view" or the reviewer is a confirmed Randian and is applying his own narrow minded view and refuses to even consider a rational approach to whether Life has any meaning.

Randian philosophy like many other philosophies grew out of a society that when confronted with Science and rationality, found the primitive paganism of The Church complete nonsense. However, one should not paint Judaism with the same brush.

Judaism, (unlike all the other systems of faith that "claim" to have superseded it), does in fact hold up to a rational and scientific approach. There is a God. He does care. There is meaning in Life. Go Learn!