How can there be both free will and divine providence? If divine providence is everywhere and all the time, does everything have meaning or nothing? When doesn’t God care about you? Could unintelligent design be better for God? What’s the role of chaos in creativity? What’s the meaning of existence anyway?

With those questions driving “Unintelligent Design,” Episode 17 of the Holy Madness, what could go wrong? Well, Tzvi had a migraine, but Meir-Simchah had “dragon energy” lol!

Underlying much of the discussion is a question about how people’s ideas relate to what they find comfortable. (Hm… that could be a good focus for a future episode…)

On the way, we call back to “The Pursuit of Happiness” (episode 8, www.holymadness.org/e/episode-8-the-pursuit-of-happiness/) and “Betting Against Pascal” (episode 9, www.holymadness.org/e/episode-9-betting-against-pascal/); and we talk faith in football, Joel Osteen (please share this episode with anyone you know who’s into that putz), real-time reward and punishment, when R. Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz stubbed his toe but didn’t get atonement from it, whether Meir-Simchah is a Litvak or a Yekke, Holy Madness – The Beer: “Triple Privilege,” when and how the Angel of Death makes mistakes, how much rain for a pound of flesh (vs. broccoli), and Do You Want to Host the Holy Madness for a Live Show? Israel only for now unless you've got our airfare :-)

We aren’t sure how many sacred cows were harmed in the production of this episode, but we look forward to your comments and critiques, and let us know if your basement is available in case we need a place to flee and hide out ;-)

If you enjoy the show, there are many ways you can support the show. Please check our previous episodes and subscribe via this site, iTunes, whichever podcast app you like best, etc. Please spread the Holy Madness to your family, friends, and community members! And if you're up for some discussion, join us on our Facebook page "Holy Madness - The Show" and Facebook discussion group "Holy Madness - The Discussion Group".

If you would like to contribute some of the money you have for tzadaka or charity, as the saying runs, "no flour, no Torah; no Torah, no flour," please pitch in on our PATREON at www.patreon.com/holymadness.

And, finally, as we were saying about live shows... Tzvi and Meir-Simchah do travel down from their mountain periodically, so if you have a synagogue, church, campus, and/or coffee shop in your area where you would like to host us, please get in touch!