Is Pascal's Wager flawed?

Question

""It makes more sense to believe in God than to not believe. If you believe, and God exists, you will be rewarded in the afterlife. If you do not believe, and He exists, you will be punished for your disbelief. If He does not exist, you have lost nothing either way. "

....He fails to notice one OBVIOUS point! That if you live your life as God exists but he doesn't, then you HAVE lost something. You have wasted countless hours in church, you have wasted time praying, you have wasted money on churches so that the preachers can buy jet airplanes (Benny Hinn), and most importantly you have lived your ENTIRE life based on a false belief structure! He completely fails to put forth these concepts as well as how belief in God holds back the progress of humanity! For example: what if a person devotes their life to reading the bible and worshiping God, but could have found a cure for cancer had they applied their intellect to science?
Pascal's wager, to me, is therefore VERY flawed.

Are there any other ways it is flawed?

Good answers so far, you are right, he doesn't make mention of the fact that there are many gods to chose from.

Answer 1

Pascal presents a false dichotomy... believing in his god, or not believing in his god.

What about Valhalla? What about Ea? What about Ishtar? What about Erenkidu? What about Kishar?

What if ALL of us are wrong, and we all stay on the earth in a parallel realm, eternally wandering until the planet's destruction?

What if a whole HOST of gods are waiting?

Answer 2

Let me begin by making it clear that Pascal's wager is not really about believing in God, it's about accepting religion. It might be an old religion with lots of cathedrals and a globe-spanning ministry, or a tiny little cult that meets in someone's front room. At the very least it will be a definition of God that you must accept, along with the infrastructure needed to propagate that definition. Don't believe me? Next time some Mighty Zombie asks if you believe in God tell them this: "Sure: I believe God is sex, and I definitely believe in sex." If they're cute and you're available, wink. Choices Suppose I decided that Pascal is right, that I should "get religion" just in case. Which one should I choose? On a worldwide basis, roughly equal numbers of people are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Hindu, each having roughly one billion adherents. Another billion have some religion other than one of the big four. The remaining billion or so have no religion. None of the religions call to me. I have no basis for choosing one over the other. When I knelt and prayed for guidance God told me he didn't exist. All-Powerful = All-Stupid? If God does exist, presumably He'll know I don't really believe in Him, that I'm pretending to believe in him on the off chance that He might really exist. If He's willing to accept me if I just "Go through the motions" then I suspect just being a good person will also be enough. Pascal's own answer to this point was that this is why we have churches, to help us grow in faith. In other words, if I submit to a church-approved brainwashing program, they can make me believe. I do not find this comforting. Hidden Costs The cost to "place the bet" is not as low as some would claim. Tithes and other contributions are just the beginning. People are dying, now, as I type, because of their religion, or because of somebody else's religion. There are people refusing medical treatment because it's "against their religion". There are people killing other people over religion. The "ethnic cleansing" in Eastern Europe was very much a religious war between Christians and Muslims. Similar conflicts are taking place in Indonesia. And let's not forget 9/11. If You Bet, Bet Responsibly Let's suppose someone offers you the following wager: Roll a single die. If it comes up a six, they will give you ten thousand dollars. If it comes up 1 through 5, you give them one thousand dollars. Should you take the bet? The odds of winning are 1:6 and the payoff is 10:1. If you've got a thousand bucks to spare, it's a good bet. But if that money is supposed to go towards rent and utilities, then it would be irresponsible of you to make the bet. If we atheists are right, this is the only life you have. Using it to place a risky bet is irresponsible. [EDIT] Yes, there are several cut and paste answers here. We've already DONE the research and know where the information is.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

Pascal's Wager in brief, says, "Fake it if you can't make it." But I think a better way to go is "Fake it UNTIL you make it."

But I think that the flaw that you have pointed out is not that big of a deal. Given that if there is no God there is no afterlife, if you "waste time" in worshipping God, what does it matter to you when you die, because you wouldn't exist anyway? And if you found a cure for cancer, but then the people who were cured died later, and ceased to exist, that wouldn't really matter that much either. If there were not afterlife, I really wouldn't see a point to life at all. What would be the point of progressing humanity? Why not just party it up or overdose yourself to death? Perhaps those who don't believe in God can explain to me what the point would be if there were no God.

In short, when you live according to the word of God, you find out that they are true. So it's not necessary to live by Pascal's Wager very long, if you are living by it. When you find that the teachings of Christ expand your life and give you peace and joy, that is all the proof you need. You don't need to wait until the afterlife to find out there is a God.

Answer 5

you have a BIG problem with your OPINION here.

Some of the greatest accomplishments have been made by Christian people, so much for your THEORY of wasting time reading the Bible.

The only people who say that reading the Bible and going to church are a waste are those who never have done either.

Even atheist have said that the Bible is packed with great principles for productive, successful living.

Don't assume that ALL Christians like Benny Hinn, I for one, think he is a charlatan who misleads the weak. He can't heal a common cold, not even a fly bite.

Giving money to organizations that help people is good and I hope that you will learn the joy of helping those in need.

I lived my life for the first 31 years without the Lord and the last 17+ with Him, I will NEVER go back. If somehow it could be proven today that there is no God, I would still want to live this Christian life !!!! I experience true JOY with God at my side.

One other thing, those prayers you say I wasted my time on, they have proven to me that God is real and does answer prayers.

Don't miss your best life now!

Answer 6

Many flaws:

1) It presupposes that there are only two choices--belief in the Christian God or non-belief. Makes no allowances for other gods.

2) Assumes that there is a 50/50 chance that God is real

3) Assumes that one can simple "chose" to believe

4) Assumes that a supposedly omniscient God cannot spot the difference between genuine faith and "expedient" faith, and will reward both equally

Answer 7

In your deceived mind it's flawed and Satan has made sure of it.
There's that word 'if' again. IF our beliefs our wrong then we've wasted countless hours praying,worshiping. Why can't you see that it works BOTH ways. If YOU are wrong, hell awaits you.
I'd rather be wrong in my beliefs and be dead in the ground when I die than be wrong and follow the unbeliever's view of ' eat, drink and be merry' ( and sin,sin,sin)and HOPE that there is no God.Being wrong then rewards one of eternal torment.



added note: there is only one God, He's in the Bible. Whether you believe or not doesn't make it untrue.
A Christian's belief is win-win . We've got nothing to lose....oops sorry, we'll be losing years of living sin-filled lives on earth (rolls eyes)

Answer 8

I have seen a lot of Pascal's Wager thingy. But I never cared to look into it. Is it any worth reading about this Pascal's thingy?

Answer 9

Also, what kind of God would want praise just for the sake of praise, with no belief behind it?

What about all of the other gods and religions in the world, which one is right?

=0)
nice.

Edit: I mentioned it ^

Answer 10

speaking from a biblical point of view.

god demands Faith.

faith is belief without proof.

Is there any Belief is you are just going to church and following rules because you are afraid of the possibility of burning in hell.

no there is not. you are living by rules and going to church simply our of fear of death. and this is not faith..

and if durring this time you tell anyone anything about Jesus of god, and you do not believe in either of them you are again just doing it "in case" you are now a false prophet, and going to hell anyway.

well that is my Pagan point of view on the wager