What is Pascal's Wager?

Question

I see this expression used a lot on the Religion & Spirituality boards but I don't know what it is.

Answer 1

If there's no God, then I lose nothing by believing in him, but if there is a God, I lose everything by not believing in him, so it's better to believe in God just in case he exists

Answer 2

Pascal's wager simply states that there are for options in belief in God. Either 1) You don't believe in God and God doesn't exist. 2) You don't believe in God and God does exist. 3) You do believe in God and God doesn't exist. 4) You do believe in God and God does exist.

If 1 is true than you lose nothing
If 2 is true than you lose everything
If 3 is true than you loose nothing but time
If 4 is ture than you gain everything

So, according to Pascal. Logicaly one should believe in God as there is nothing to lose but some time and eveything to gain.

So, if you believe Pascal’s wager. Xilplotip! There, that word if a powerful curse. What does the curse do you ask? Well, it causes immense suffering mentally, spiritually, and physically. It will grantee you life has no meaning, and that your soul after you die will be devoured by the void.

Now I can lift the curse if you pay me $50.

So, via Pascal’s logic, you should pay me $50 because compared to eternal suffering it is a very small price to pay. So, I accept Pay Pal and you can drop me an E-mail if you want to send me a personal check.

Sorry, there is no logical reason why someone who doesn't already believe in God should worship it. If they need a security blanket to allow them to pretend that existence isn’t meaningless go right ahead, that’s ok. Just don't get in the way of my view of the void I think its pretty.

Answer 3

Pascal's Wager is the application by the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, of decision theory to the belief in God (also known as Pascal's Gambit). It was set out in the Pensées, a posthumous collection of notes made by Pascal towards his unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics.

The Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing. In Pascal's assessment, it is inexcusable not to investigate this issue:

Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly.

Answer 4

Its a safer bet to believe in god than not to believe in god.
If god exists and you believe = Heaven
If god exists and you don't' believe = Hell
If god doesn't exist and you believe = Nothing
if god doesn't exist and you don't believe = Nothing
However this only makes sense if there were 1 religion.
So when people say why not believe in god, it has great benefits. It is a moot point
there are more than 10,000 different religions and over 33,000 denominations of just Christianity. The change of you following the correct religion/god is less than 0.002%. This is what makes Pascal's Wager idiotic.

Answer 5

Mathematician Blaise Pascal (of Pascal's triangle and much other fame), said, near the end of his life, that it made more sense to be religious, and have the possibility of paradise (no matter how unlikely) than to not be, and foreclose such a possibility. There are several flaws in the proposition; it is well discussed in:

Answer 6

It's a fool-proof way to convince Atheists to accept God.


It only works if you're a fool.

Answer 7

When one decides to believe in God "in case" it turns out to be true.

Answer 8

Why don't atheists accept God?
If there is a God they win, if not they haven't lost anything.

Answer 9

Another Drink!!!

Answer 10

tzddean said it right.