Binny Davis asked Martin Bodek:

Hi I just read your review of Kelemen's Permission to believe. Your argued some good points against the book but you say you still believe in God How exactly would you formulate your approach to belief in God? many thanks Binny

Martin Bodek Since receiving your question this morning, I've pondered how best to answer this concisely, which is impossible. I'll be succinct by presenting my thoughts in five ways: 1) Allow me to re-stress that my arguments against Kelemen are against his arguments, not what he's arguing for. I agree with what he's arguing for, but it can be argued better. 2) I believe in God, but I don't believe that what we do in his name is correct. He may have had other ideas entirely, but ha'aretz nosan lifnei adam, right? 3) Very easy arguments can be made that the earth was created by committee. Why commit ourselves to a single God? I have never found the arguments against this concept to be worthy. Rather, I have found them dismissive. 4) My opinion is ever-evolving, and rarely is fixed in place. I prefer to be unsure. Better for the thinking mind. 5) Finally, this funniest clip from a very bad movie, Hail Ceasar!, puts it perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGpsX.... The final scene has him substituting the line with "It's complicated." It is.

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