First, choosing a religion out of fear it might be true and you might go to hell is not a healthy way of choosing a life path.
Second, it's not harmless to follow religion. It seperates you from other people (which limits your choices of friends, spouses, etc), it takes up tons of your life (church, prayer, study, etc) and it makes people blind to real ethical reasons for laws like gay marraige. Whether or not hell exists, I do not want to be responsible for limiting the way someone lives their life, like people do with gay marraige laws that are only in place because of religion.
Here's my Wager:
If God does not exist, an Atheist (I'm not by the way) will have lived a full life, free and without religious guilt.
If God does exist, the Atheist may or may not go to hell depending on which God ended up being true.
What do you guys think? I'm not trying to offend, I'm just trying to put things in perspective.
2007-01-01 17:21:34 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I know Pascals Wager is not an end all, but it doesn't seem like a good conversation starter even, because it's already biased in favor of religion, and it's pretty false, for reasons I've explained above.
2007-01-01 17:29:47 · update #1
Nice try, but not driving fast out of fear of getting a ticket is not the same. If you drive fast, you KNOW you are breaking a law that you are sure exists. It's totally different.
2007-01-01 17:35:46 · update #2
Wow, I just wanted to point out how that driving answer demonstrates the flaw in Pascal's Wager. People don't not drive fast out of fear - they do it out of concern for their own safety and that of others and most people have no desire to drive fast to begin with. You don't not call someone fat because you're afraid you'll hurt their feelings, but because you realize their weight doesn't matter and you don't think of people that way (i.e you aren't a jerk to begin with). Some people need to work on their perspective.
You don't follow a religion out of fear, but because it is what you believe and anything less would be making a mockery of that religion.
2007-01-01 17:43:48 · answer #1 · answered by Phoenix, Wise Guru 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pascalls Wager was never meant to be an end all "this is why you should believe" statement. It was his opinion.. "what do I lose by beleiving" and never went into detail about what he believed. Though for myself I can say, if in the end there is no God, I wont regret having had faith their was. For one, I wont exist to regret anything, and even if I did, my faith has been a big part in making my life full. But then yes, you can take the wager further, ok... so you believe,.... what if there is a God and what you believe is wrong? Then that opens a whole other door. I think, Pascalls Wager is a good tool to open a conversation up about God but we all need to take it even further.
2007-01-01 17:27:43 · answer #2 · answered by impossble_dream 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do not think I would want to live in a world without religion.
There is a poem someone I read that say if there was no god we would make one up. Or something like that.
You say that some pick religion out of fear. Do we not do that with other things also. Not driving fast out of fear of getting a ticket. Not calling someone fat out of fear of hurting there feelings, things like that.
Most if not everything is based on something. If not religion then what. ?
2007-01-01 17:34:09 · answer #3 · answered by LadyCatherine 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you have the right to choose for yourself what to believe. However...I pray that before you leave this earth, God will grant you the wisdom to understand that His son indeed is the truth, the life and the way, and I ask that in Jesus' name.
2007-01-01 17:23:49 · answer #4 · answered by Esther 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Why? Because they have nothing else.
2007-01-01 17:29:59 · answer #5 · answered by jaden404 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager#Criticisms_of_Pascal.27s_wager
2007-01-01 17:35:32 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋