Pascals wager
Pascals wager"Who is God? Where is God? Does God really exist? Should I believe in God?" These are some of the questions which are asked by millions of people each and every day who are desperately trying to find some meaning in their life. Blaise Pascal tried to help society, as well as himself, to find the best solution to these problems. Pascal attempted to determine if it was worth it to bet on God's existence. Were the atheists right in not wasting their time concerning the existence of God? Have the true believers all been hoaxed into one big illusion? Although a person will not actually be able to find out the truth until they are dead, Pascal compared the gains and losses of believing there is a God during your finite life.
Before one is aloud to critique Pascal's Wager, one must first answer the question, "What is Pascal's Wager?".Though Reason alone cannot lead us to God, Pascal states an ingenious argument that is rational, on prudential grounds, to behave as god exists.(Cottingham, 1997, p. 256) Due to the lack of conclusive rational grounds for belief, we must wager or bet on his existence. (Cottingham, 1997, p. 256) Pascal says "the prize here is an infinite or infinitely happy life, one chance of winning against a finite number of chances of losing.... This leaves only one choice open, in any game that involves infinity, where there is not an infinite number of chances of losing to set against the chances of winning. There is nothing to ponder- you must stake everything"( Pascal,1995, no.418) His wager can basically be summed up as:
If God REALLY exists, and we believe (= bet that God exists), we have an infinite gain (heaven).
If God REALLY exists, and we don't believe that, then we have the potential of an infinite loss (hell, or at least eternal separation from God).
If God really does NOT EXIST, and we believe that God exists, we essentially lose nothing.
If God really does NOT EXIST, and we believe that God doesn't exist, we essentially gain nothing.
Therefore, it is better to believe in the existence of God.(www.saintmarys.edu)
Obviously Pascal is trying to defend the belief in god using this proof. It's important always to remember Pascal's project of trying to provide a defense of Christianity. Part of the crowd that Pascal hung around with before his conversion did all the things he later identified as diversion: hunting, partying, but especially gambling. Pascal himself is often credited with inventing roulette. So it's not surprising that he uses the device of a wager to try to convince people, who are already gambling, to take a chance on God. That is, if you want to make a point to a gambler, put it in the form of a bet. That'll at least get their attention and disturb their indifference.(www.concentric.net) As one can see, a choice between the two must be made. An...
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