Reddit reviews Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence
We found 6 Reddit comments about Permission To Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
A little extra reading. This is all from "Permission To Receive – Four Rational Approaches To The Torah's Divine Origin by Lawrence Kelemen" which is the sequel to "Permission To Believe - Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence"
> Finally, one might ask: maybe Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Nanak and Bab all fulfilled God's will? Maybe God wanted to provide five separate assignments: one for Jews, one for Christians, one for Muslims, one for Sikhs, and one for the Bahais. Why must we assume that only one of these religions is the word of God? Maybe all five are completely true?
> The problem with this approach is that each subsequent religion absolutely denies the current validity of its predecessor(s).
> Despite the Torah's twenty-four statements that it's laws are forever binding, the New Testament states: "In Christ it [the Old Testament] is being anulled;" "We [Jews] are released from the law;" and "Christ has redeemed us [Jews] from the curse of the law."
> The Koran states: "if they [Jews and Christians] accept your faith [Islam], they shall be rightly guided; if they reject it, they shall surely be in disaster;" "He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be excepted from him, and in the world to come he will be one of the lost;" and "the only true faith in Gods sight is Islam."
> Sikh tradition teaches, "In the court of the True God [they adherents of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam] are suffering severe punishment."
> Bahai writings speak about "a new revelation, the Bayan, which abrogated the Koran, as the Koran had abrogated the Gospels." They point out that "the manifestation [of Bab's successor] Baha'u'llah is the most recent instance of revelation" and declare that "the only salvation in any age is to turn again towards God, to accept his manifestation for that day."
> If the Torah is true then, Judaism will be valid forever; if Christianity is true, then Judaism was an old; if Islam is true, then both Judaism and Christianity were repealed; if Sikhism is true, then Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are obsolete; and if Bahai Faith is true, then Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism are all outdated.
> All five religions' perspectives cannot be simultaneously valid, since all modern expressions of monotheism claim that God did reveal the Torah, and since the Torah itself affirms over and over that it is an eternally valid revelation, Moses' prophesy appears to be the only candidate.
Yes, this is all assuming that there is a God and if you have trouble with that, I strongly suggest buying and reading the book which covers all topic and shows you how believing in God is rational.
I don't like the conflation of "religion" with "faith," because most conceptions of faith imply that it isn't rational, whereas I think that religion definitely can be.
Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen has written and lectured extensively on the subject.
Permission to Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence
Permission to Receive: Four Rational Approaches to the Torah's Divine Origin
Lecture on the veracity of the Torah
Lecture on the rational approach to the divinity of the Oral Tradition
Might I recommend that you both read this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0944070558/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/178-4303808-2404727
Permission to Believe by Lawrence Kelleman.
I would really like the opinion of someone who is not an Orthodox Jew and didn't already believe/want to believe anyway.
Read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Believe-Rational-Approaches-Existence/dp/0944070558
The same answers I have given here a hundred times about mass revelation. That and more complex answers found within books such as Permission to Believe and books by Ramchal.
well the one thing that intrigued me about Judaism is how the whole system just points to the realization of god. there's a reason why Jews are so rich, so smart, low divorce and crime rate. the torah is a perfect instruction manual for life and the reason it has so many laws is because humans have so many flaws. the restrictions of being a jew are really opportunity for a better life.
for me i had to overcome the fact if the torah was really divine and is gods knowledge, or was it man made crazy cave man stuff from thousands of years ago..but if you take the time to investigate the authenticity of the torah all fingers point to god. you know unlike the rest of the world we believe humans were actually smarter back in the day and that are great grandparents were not apes. this is easily proven by just learning torah YOU must know that its no easy task to learn and how much knowledge there is. the oral torah is there to explain the written torah , the mishnah is there to explain that , then you have commentator explain that, then rashi explaining what that guy meant and we are here in 2011 breaking our heads trying to understand it from the bottum up. and when we do its a very real and euphoric moment. ......also the torah has things installed in it that in no way possible could be written by a human. think about this psychological argument . imagine we are living three thousand years ago and you're a member for a select committee to write the torah, your goal is convince people that this is a divine document given to you by god. in addition to obvious laws like dont kill or steal would you put kashrut on the list ? if we really wanted to sell this document to the world. not only that, the torah explains what signs a animal needs to be kosher then goes out of its why to name 4 animals that have 1 sign and not the other. How would the authors know such a thing? was Moshe a zoologist exploring the world. its a lot of credibility to put on the line ..to this day we have 5,000 known species of animals and constantly finding new ones ,and not once has there been a find that went against the torahs explicit claim ..no human trying to pass off a forged torah as divine would deliberately include statements which are bound to be proven false ,and risk exposing himself of fraud..only a supreme being can know for certain the characteristics of every animal in the world, because he created them!
this is just one small example like a drop in the bucket .
2 books that really helped me out was
http://www.amazon.com/Permission-Believe-Rational-Approaches-Existence/dp/0944070558
a book explain god through science , logic , history , etc
next one is http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Reasonable-Doubt-Shmuel-Waldman/dp/1583308067 this book just proves in every way why judaism is real, amazing books and there is free audio classes for both..
and know even if you went off the derech every jew is still a diamond and even if a diamond falls in the mud ,all you have to do is polish it off to reveal its value again.