Over and over I hear "Pascel's wager" Please explain what is faulty in that "Wager"?

Answer 1

Where to begin?

First, it assume only one religion. Pascal's Wager is great if the only religion is Christianity. But it isn't. You must now apply Pascal's Wager to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. In fact, not only must you apply Pascal's Wager to thousands of known religions, but you must apply it to unknown religions, as well. What if there is a religion where belief in the deity results in eternal world peace for each and every soul while nonbelief results in eternal torment for you and everyone you love? No such religion exists (to my knowledge), but you're better off following that belief than Christianity, Islam, or any of those "lesser" religions.

Next, one of the premises is false. It claims that if you do believe and God isn't real, then you lost nothing. That may not be true. If you subscribe to the religion that preaches against sleeping in on Sundays, promiscuity, and dancing, then you miss out on all of those. You have lost out on the opportunities to partake in these (assuming you want to). It's not as clear-cut as Pascal thought.

Next, it supposes that you can choose to believe. You can't. If your brakes go out in your car and you hurtle toward a cliff, it is to your benefit to "believe" that the car will fly and land safely. No matter how much you "believe" it, you'll come to your senses and dive out of the car before it plummets off the cliff. Try believing in unicorns. Or maybe another god. You can't do it. Neither can non-Christians.

Finally, Pascal's Wager flat-out states that God is an idiot. It presumes that you don't really have to be a devout follower of God. You only need to believe in him as some sort of insurance, because nothing else sounds good. Would you expect loyalty from someone who trusts in you only because he's afraid of the alternative? Those who follow Pascal's Wager are trying to con God. An omnipotent being like that won't be fooled by such chicanery.


That's just what I came up with. Do a search on Pascal's Wager, and you'll find other reasons, as well.

Answer 2

It assumes the deity has no common sense or ability to read into a person's reasons. If a person is believing just to get out of Hell, it is not worth it. They are cheapening that religion. Even Christians should protest to Pascal's Wager.

Besides, being a good, caring and loving person is all that should matter. There is no reason why all the good, kind people before Christianity should go to Hell, while murderers and rapists go to Heaven for admitting their evilness. Reference Atheist's Wager on Wikipedia.

Answer 3

those to whom God has granted a level of non secular concept will hear Him as He speaks with the aid of His observe, and it extremely is them He addresses Himself. if think ofyou've have been given an ear, hear! we've a asserting," A observe is adequate for a smart guy," and if he's a smart guy one observe is adequate, yet whilst he's not smart an entire quantity would be wasted on him. there is yet another Scripture which says "Take heed what ye hear!" In Psalm ninety 4 we've a verse which speaks of the human ear. We study "He that planted the ear, shall He no longer hear?" it extremely is an particularly substantial expression, for the ear is between the main surprising of all human organs. It contains the ear-trumpet, the drum of the ear, and below that, secreted between the bones, the interior ear which does the listening to, transmitting exterior sounds to the concepts. the interior ear is created from what's called a hammer-and-anvil and a stirrup. whilst sound involves the ear for the period of the trumpet, the hammer starts tapping the anvil, and at as quickly as the nerves set to paintings and deliver the sounds right down to the actual ear, that's immersed in fluid. as quickly because of the fact the ear-trumpet brings the sound to the drum, and the drum transmits it to the fluid, hundreds of telephones are at paintings--in fact, in a rightly built ear there are as many telephones as there are sounds in the universe. whilst those come into action, then the concepts hears. All this occurs before we alter into conscious of a valid. No ask your self the Psalmist wrote "He that planted the ear it is no longer in basic terms a gentle device, yet you could be very careful approximately getting something into it, the two bodily and in any different case. What enters into the ear enters into the concepts, the concepts, and proceeds to the heart and the spirit.

Answer 4

Drinks. The idea was that the choices were that God exists as he says he does in the Bible, or he doesn't. If you don't believe and get to heaven he will be angry and send you to hell. If you do believe and he doesn't exist, you've lost nothing. A silly reason to believe and flawed. What if you do believe in the Christian God and arrive to find Zeus REALLY upset about it. Or Ra, or some other god or goddess. It is asked about once every two or three hours and we have made a drinking game out if it.

Answer 5

I will make a wager with you: If you can direct me to any other question about "Pascel's" wager, I'll fully answer your question.

Answer 6

It's pretentious. It's assuming that you can just start believing at the snap of a finger. If you don't believe something, then you don't believe it. You'd have to be PRETENDING to believe to accept the wager, and IF there was a God, I think He'd see through that. I think He would rather us disbelieve honestly, than believe without honesty or reason.

Answer 7

Bottoms up!

@Zero, how do we know which bible? There's the Tanakh, the Christian Bible (which includes a bastardized Tanakh), the Qu'ran, the Vedas, the Mayan scriptures that the Christians torched before telling schoolchildren that the Maya had no writing system, ...

Answer 8

1- It assumes that you aren't giving up anything in your life by believing in a falsehood
2- It assumes that you can chose to believe in something that you find absurd.
3- It assumes that there is only two choices, when there are thousands of gods and no evidence to differentiate them
4- It assumes that god couldn't tell that you were only choosing to believe because it was safer.

There is more, but it isn't worth the time.

Answer 9

It (1) makes the assumption that belief can be feigned; (2) makes the assumption that if there is a God, it's the Christian one.

What if your Creator turns out to be a Hindu God with 45 arms? That's at least as valid as the Christian God.

Answer 10

The fact that reading a book (bible) and following what any other man (pastor or related) tells you about right and wrong does NOT guarantee at all that god will be pleased with you and accept you to heaven (assuming he existed).