i have no clue
2007-01-24 09:47:56 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
take an intro to philosophy course at your local junior college
2007-01-24 09:50:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Pascal's wager was made by Pascal, a mathemitician. The idea of Pascal's wager is simple:
Pascal reasoned that the joy obtained from going to heaven for eternity as a result of faith was large or even infinite. Therefore, by comparison, he reasoned, joy obtained from hereticism on Earth was insignificant was basically zero. He then mulitplied these numbers by the odds of God's existance and by God's nonexistance. (To be fair, he assumed that there was a 50% chance that exists.) The equation showed that faith would have a better chance of resulting in happiness.
However, Pascal's Wager does has some flaws. For instance, some argue that God doesn't exist. According to them, there's a 0% chance that God exists, meaning that faith would not result in more happiness for a person.
Another problem is that the equation assumes that only Christians can get into heaven. If the true Deity turns out to be Ganesh (a Hindu God) and Pascal had faith in Jesus, his faith wouldn't help him. Also, what if faith isn't a necessary qualification for going to heaven?
In short, Pascal's Wager is a mathematical formula that claims that faith is more probable than non-faith to lead to happiness. However, the formula has some flaws.
2007-01-24 18:05:35 · answer #2 · answered by x 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pasting my stock reply:
Pascal's wager:
"If god exists, it's infinitely better to believe, since you get heaven instead of hell for eternity. If he doesn't, it doesn't matter since you're dead anyway. So overall it's better to believe"
This is, of course, false.
Some of the problems with the argument:
* The implied assumption that god may exist (with a 50% probability, no less!)
* The assumption that there is an afterlife with a heaven and hell
* The assumption that the god cares about belief in him/her above all else
* The assumption that if you believe in a god, it will definitely be the same god that actually exists.
* The assumption that you lose nothing if it's false. You have lost a great deal, from time praying to a nonexistent entity (somebody mentioned just today praying several hours a day!!!) to morality (your god may ask you to hurt other people) and much more besides.
* The assumption that people can believe in something simply because it benefits them. Would you believe goblins exist for twenty bucks? Why not?
* The assumption that any god won't see through the "believing just to get into heaven" ploy.
For more:
http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/wager.html
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/wager.html
2007-01-24 17:52:55 · answer #3 · answered by eldad9 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The proper question is WHAT is Pascal's Wager. Pascal was a philosopher who said it was worth betting that God exists, as if you are wrong and he doesnt, nothing is lost. If you are right, then you get to go to heaven. Unfortunately this is an illogical wager. Which god do you believe in? If you bet on the christian god and he ends up being muslim, you are screwed.
2007-01-24 17:52:46 · answer #4 · answered by sngcanary 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Blaise Pascal was a French philosopher and mathematician. He argued that it is better to believe in God and be wrong, than to not believe in God and be wrong. (This is Pascal's Wager).
However, Pascal's Wager is entirely false:
1) It doesn't specify which God to believe in - Yahweh? Zeus? Allah? Thor? Odin? Horus? Krishna?
2) It doesn't specify which religion to follow - Christianity? Judaism? Islam? Hinduism? Pastafarianism?
3) Any all-powerful God would see that you're believing in him just because 'it's better to do so', instead of believing on faith.
2007-01-24 17:53:31 · answer #5 · answered by Nowhere Man 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Just put it in a search engine to find out. Pascal was Pascal. His wager was his wager. Look it up.
2007-01-24 17:52:21 · answer #6 · answered by Nels 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Pascals Wager is from the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, it goes like this. "If you believe in God, and God exists, you gain everything. If you don't believe God exists, and God exists, you lose everything."
Basically saying that it's better to be safe then sorry.
2007-01-24 17:55:43 · answer #7 · answered by David H 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pascals Wager : You should believe in god because if he exist you will spend eternity in heaven when you die. If your wrong ( God doesn't actually exist) you have lost nothing.
A logically invalid argument, because everyone can claim to be "God", and you can't worship all of them at once when each is claiming you should only worship them.
2007-01-24 17:56:25 · answer #8 · answered by Count Acumen 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A flawed argument for believing in god, it says that you should believe in god because you have more to lose by not believing in him than if you don't. If you believe in him, and he exists, then you go to heaven. If you believe in him and he doesn't exist, nothing happens. If you don't believe in him, and he exists, you go to hell, but if he doesn't nothing happens. This completely disregards the fact that there are a million different religions with a heaven and hell, and there is no way to know which is the right one. It also assumes that believing in god "just in case" is enough to get you into heaven, when if I was god, I would not let those people in now you tell me if this logic isn't flawed whatsoever
2007-01-24 17:56:20 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is a tired old threat that is dressed up and drug out here a few dozen times a day. It just gets old.
2007-01-24 17:56:27 · answer #10 · answered by Cindy Lou Who --P3D-- 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋