Would someone please tell me who Pascal is and what is Pascal's wager?

Question

I hear it so many times on the religious forum. Just curious. Thanks.

I would've googled it but to be honest with you, I thought he was someone on this site. lol

Answer 1

Pascal's Wager is:
the French philosopher Blaise Pascal's application of decision theory to the belief in God. It is also occasionally known as Pascal's Gambit. It appears in the Pensées, a posthumous collection of Pascal's notes for an unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics. Pascal argued that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists, because the expected value of believing that God exists is always greater than the expected value resulting from non-belief. Indeed, he claimed that the expected value is infinite. With this, he sought to convert those, to Christianity, who were uninterested in religion and unimpressed by previous theological arguments for it.

Answer 2

(not wikipedia)

Pascal's scientific contributions include the principle of hydrostatics, now known as Pascal's law, which is the basis of the hydraulic press used in hydraulic brakes and other applications. In mathematics, he helped found probability theory and did important work with infinite series and the geometry of curves. In 1640 Pascal began developing a machine that could help his father -- a tax commissioner -- calculate taxes. The first working model appeared in 1642. Known today as the pascaline, it was the first mechanical calculator that used gears. He also is considered a major French philosopher and author for his book Pensées.

Practical argument for belief in God formulated by Blaise Pascal. In his Pensées (1657–58), Pascal posed the following argument to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational: If the Christian God does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. If the Christian God does exist, the agnostic gains eternal life by believing in him and loses an infinite good by not believing. William James objected to the argument that it supported belief in any religion that promised an eternal afterlife. Others have objected that though the argument does give one a reason for believing in the Christian God, it does not make that belief “rational” in the proper sense.

Answer 3

Blaise Pascal believed it to be a better bet to believe in God because the benefits were greater for believers than non- believers.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

The short version: Pascal was a philosopher. He joked that if you believe in God, you've got nothing to lose. People took it seriously. It went down hill from there.

Answer 5

I'll give you my opinion/paraphrase: It's about playing "odds." Kinda like Las Vegas... (It's a threat, in a way, too). It goes like this... if there is no god... no problem... but if there is a god and you don't believe... then you're screwed. So your safer to believe in god than not. It's the "your'e goin to hell" motivational philosophy that many christians use.

Answer 6

french philosopher. argued that if he believed in god, he woud go to heaven. if he didn't believe in god and he was wrong, he would go to hell. if he believed in god and he was wrong, he would not go to heaven. so, he argued, it was better to believe and be wrong, than to not believe and be right. also, equally bad to belive and be wrong and not believe and be right. all are better than not believing and being wrong, so he believed. it seems a false belief to me, like betting on the red AND the black. if he's only believing because he's afraid of what might happen if he's wrong, it's false. was he trying to trick god?

Answer 7

Thats what google is for, wikipedia's entry should do you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

Answer 8

I think he was famous for ringing bells and eating dog treats.

Answer 9

Look it up yourself.><>