- #1
Surrealist
- 48
- 0
Pascal's Wager:
If you believe in God, and God exists, you go to heaven.
If you believe in God, and God doesn't exist, nothing happens.
If you don't believe in God, and exists, you go to hell.
If you don't believe in God, and God doesn't exist, nothing happens.
Therefore, you can statistically maximize your gain by believing in God.
There is a flaw in this argument. As a premise, it assumes that if God exists then God is a generalized version of the God portrayed in the Christian Bible. If you wanted to play the game correctly, you would have to consider the minimum requirements for eternal reward for each religion. Then you would have see if there is any degeneracy among these religions so that you could choose the set of beliefs that yields the highest multiplicity in result. Of course, this line of reasoning assumes an equal weighting for all possible relgions... which we have no reason to assume.
Anyway, these wagers are really somewhat pointless. If God exists, and God is concerned enough about your personal faith such that this God is willing to damn you for eternity, I seriously doubt that "playing the odds" will win you any favor in the eyes of such a being.
If you believe in God, and God exists, you go to heaven.
If you believe in God, and God doesn't exist, nothing happens.
If you don't believe in God, and exists, you go to hell.
If you don't believe in God, and God doesn't exist, nothing happens.
Therefore, you can statistically maximize your gain by believing in God.
There is a flaw in this argument. As a premise, it assumes that if God exists then God is a generalized version of the God portrayed in the Christian Bible. If you wanted to play the game correctly, you would have to consider the minimum requirements for eternal reward for each religion. Then you would have see if there is any degeneracy among these religions so that you could choose the set of beliefs that yields the highest multiplicity in result. Of course, this line of reasoning assumes an equal weighting for all possible relgions... which we have no reason to assume.
Anyway, these wagers are really somewhat pointless. If God exists, and God is concerned enough about your personal faith such that this God is willing to damn you for eternity, I seriously doubt that "playing the odds" will win you any favor in the eyes of such a being.