There are thousands of entities all of which are supposed to be God. If you decide that you will believe in only one of them and disbelieve in all the rest, then you will have made yourself thousands of enemies.
The atheist will be in a safer position. He has just withheld judgment on the existence of these gods, all of them. They will be majorly P.O.'d at the believer who insists that only one of them is worth believing in and thereby insults all the others.
So Pascal's Wager, carried to its logical conclusion, calls upon you to disbelieve in all gods. That's a lot safer than believing in only one of them and dissing all the rest.
2007-03-01 05:26:04 · 5 answers · asked by fra59e 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I think you could take this deconstruction of Pascal's argument even further. Consider the fact that the basic idea of Pascal's wager is that "Because believing in God would give me an infinite reward if God exists, and it is possible for God to exist, I should believe in God". In other words, "If I do X, it is possible for me to gain an infinite reward. Therefore I should do X." The absurdity of this argument is obvious. You could put any possibility in for "X" and it would work just as well as the wager. For example, it's possible that you will receive an infinite reward for not believing in God; therefore you shouldn't believe in God. Or, it's possible that you will receive an infinite reward for setting your face on fire; therefore you should set your face on fire. And so on.
2007-03-01 05:38:06 · answer #1 · answered by Rob Diamond 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Exactly. It would be alot worse if you're wasting your life worshipping the wrong god than worshipping none at all. Imagine all the tortures the dissed god could think up?
Christians don't know they have the right god, they just want to think they do. For all they know Allah, Ra, Zeus, Odin, or even Huitzilopochtli (Aztec religious god) is the right god. Or even none that humanity has even thought up yet.
Have to say, though. its much more likely that there isn't any god at all.
But, if you look at it objectively, Atheism makes alot more sense.
2007-03-01 13:34:51 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I think PW suggests that you are only safe if you believe in all gods equally. Of course, you also have to hope that god A doesn't find out that you are also tight with god B. Kind'a like have more than one girlfriend at a time - it's going to get your butt kicked.
In truth - PW is just an interesting thought problem but it doesn't tell you anything practical.
2007-03-01 13:32:02 · answer #3 · answered by Alan 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually, Buddhists and Hindus have no problem with you believing in other gods, as long as you believe in their respective gods also. Islam calls both Christians and Jews, children of the Book, and supposedly accept them as brothers. Christianity is really one of the few religions that forbid the worship of other gods.
2007-03-01 13:40:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Atheists and Agnostics as well as Humanists, and FreeThinkers would have to be the safest of all groups for various reasons. And I can use the shot thanks.
2007-03-01 13:29:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋