look at those equations
No God=Nothing after death=we all lose "Atheists and Religious"
There is God=There is Heaven and Hell=Atheists lose and Religious win
You los in both cases while there is 50% for religious people to win and go to heaven..why do you take a 100% losing option while you can take 50% winning option.
logic huh?
2006-10-09 10:59:25 · 29 answers · asked by mido 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Hey..this question was to make you think with me..It doesn't mean that I'm gambling on my way but I've chosen my religion because I'm convinced in the first place then the matter of heaven and hell comes after my belief in the end..I just wanted to know how do you look to this issue and from which view.
VOTE
2006-10-09 18:32:58 · update #1
Ugh... pascal's wager... has been debunked... so many times... just look it up, I can't even be bothered anymore.
Here, I'll get you started but this is as far as I'm going: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager#Criticisms_of_Pascal.27s_wager
2006-10-09 11:00:45 · answer #1 · answered by The Resurrectionist 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
French philosopher Blaise Pascal had a similar argument. He called it the bet. You bet one life against an eternity of lives on whether God exists or not. If you lose, you lose the one life, in the sense you live it according to a false belief. If you win, you win an eternity of lives. No matter what you figure the probability of God's existence is, your odds are still an infinity to one. So only a fool would not make that bet.
I see two problems with this, however.
1) How can you believe if you don't? You can choose to lift your right arm, you can choose to move your left foot, but can you truly choose to believe in the same way?
2) I dislike the idea that you should believe or not believe in God because there's a reward attached to the first, and a punishment to the second. It seems to be like this is the lowest form of morality. It is the way we make children obey: Do it or you will go to your room. Surely responsible, sentient adults should lead their lives on higher principles than simply the promise of candy at the end?
I am not an atheist. I am more of an agnostic. I believe the Supreme Being has let us the freedom of reason and questioning precisely so we could enjoy this freedom and grow through our struggle for understanding.
2006-10-09 18:07:41 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hahaha how poor of logic.
For all you know the god you believe in is the wrong god and you'll go to hell, so seeing as to how there are hundreds of religions and belief systems, you pretty much have less than a 1% chance to make it into heave, despite how big your religion as a whole is. And as for the Atheists, even though religious don't like to agree, there still is the possibility that there is a god that'll take them into heaven for the actions they do despite their belief, thus Atheists have an equal shot as you.
logic huh?
2006-10-09 18:06:42 · answer #3 · answered by Alucard 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Easy come, easy go I guess... or, if you can bear with me, "nothing ventured, nothing gained", but that is reaching a bit.
Okay, if you are being serious, here is the major flaw:
There are multiple religions. (about as many as there are languages, or 750 last I read).... so 50 percent of the time, atheists will live their lives according to a correct belief (win) and then 50 percent divided by some number in the hundreds is the chance you get your magic life extension.
we could study stem cell research and work on the problem of eternal paradise, but instead lets just live and die like lemmings.
p.s. i don't really give theism a 50 percent chance. i'm not sure i can give it a one percent chance.
2006-10-09 18:04:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I didn't know that religion was all about statistics.
And you have something wrong. You said "No God=Nothing after death=we all lose. Nothing could be further from the truth. If more people would realize that religion is a mind altering, falsified fairy tale, then maybe people would be more concerned about each other, our environment, our culture and society instead of the "Who cares, we'll all die and go to heaven in the end, so what does it matter what happens here" attitude.
If we stopped to realize that this life is all there is, we'd be more caring and nurturing of it and be more respectful of the environment we are leaving our children.
2006-10-09 18:05:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is the argument that I started to use right before I became an Atheist. Since you are actually thinking about it tells me that you're on your way. First of all, you can't make yourself believe in something that you don't believe in. It's impossible. "God" is supposed to know your heart. Even if you say you are a Christian or Muslim because of this argument, you are really just bsing yourself. Also, there are so many religions in the world, if you believe in 1, you go to hell in several others.
2006-10-09 18:10:11 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is known as "Pascal's Wager", named after Blaise Pascal. He said it was good to believe in good, for the reasons you stated. However, it doesn't say which god or which religion is true. Do I believe in Yahweh, or Allah? Christianity or Islam? Your "you might as well believe in God" argument has no validity.
We take the '50% winning' option because evidence has led us to believe that a god or gods do not exist.
2006-10-09 18:14:27 · answer #7 · answered by Nowhere Man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pascal's wager. Let me put some holes in it for you.
1. Does your God really want you to believe in him out of fear? Then really, you are thinking out of self interest rather out of faith.
2. You assume God is punishing, ie, this is really the Christian God you are talking about.
3. You assume that the chances of god are either no god or there is a god. You forget the chances that there are possibly, 2, 3, 4, ... to however number you want, number of gods. In this situation, the possibility of only ONE god exists goes down a lot.
4. You spend your time thinking what your god want and when and if he doesnt exist, then you wasted your entire life. Some people tend to take matters in to their own hands.
Logic huh?
2006-10-09 18:05:46 · answer #8 · answered by leikevy 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Poor child,,
Winning/Losing, Heaven/Hell, God/no God.
Percentages, statistics,,,
I love ALL people,, I love all of nature,, You demand hard and fast rules written in stone.
I demand nothing but happiness and peace.
That is why you are miserable trying to appease your angry God and I am happy with my life.
Logic huh?
2006-10-09 18:06:26 · answer #9 · answered by landerscott 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The logic is that we don't believe in the winning case. Atheism is not an optimistic set of beliefs. We'd love to be able to look forward to an afterlife. We just don't see it as how things actually are and don't want to deceive ourselves into believing it.
And it's a flimsy belief that looks at the outcome and chooses based on that rather than reflection and truth.
2006-10-09 18:01:45 · answer #10 · answered by Phil 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I don't think the Atheists are gambling on this one. Wouldn't picking a god to believe in screw up your odds. Besides, Atheists aren't Atheist just to annoy you. They do however annoy the shyt outta me. But then again, so do Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and anyone else who claims their way is the only right way. All rivers lead to the sea. Or they don't. Who knows? Besides the Atheists, Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, et. al.?
2006-10-09 18:17:12 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋