"You should live your life and try to make the world a better place for your being in it, whether or not you believe in God. If there is no God, you have lost nothing and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind. If there is a benevolent God, he will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in him. "
2007-04-10 03:10:27 · 28 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Aldo - if that assumption is falsified then I wouldn't want anything to do with God anyway.
2007-04-10 03:19:10 · update #1
You are, of course, assuming that God is benevolent.
What if my particular personal heathen deity turns out to be a complete rotter?
All that work for nothing.
Now don't start with the 'change Gods' thing, I'm very happy with my particular personal heathen deity, even if it is likely It will turn out to be a complete rotter.
Thanks.
Other than that, I quite like your Pascal V2.0.
It reads well. Obviously you've given it some thought, and you've reaped the reward.
:)
2007-04-10 03:21:19 · answer #1 · answered by Orac 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Is this better than Pascal's Wager?
"You should live your life and try to make the world a better place for your being in it, whether or not you believe in God. If there is no God, you have lost nothing and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind. If there is a benevolent God, he will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in him. "
This is written by fools for fools
2007-04-10 10:21:47 · answer #2 · answered by charles b 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
It's still just as bad logically. What if there is a malevolent god who rewards those who cause pain and suffering and punish the opposite? Then you're screwed. There is no logical way of framing Pascal's Wager as there are infinite number of possible gods (or lack thereof) that are all equally likely based on the knowledge we have of it's existance and characteristics.
2007-04-10 10:17:45 · answer #3 · answered by Tim 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
...and if there is a malevolent God...?
Personally I reckon this is all you need:
"You should live your life and try to make the world a better place for your being in it...and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind."
If you believe in God then you will read that belief into it anyway.
2007-04-10 10:22:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's nearly the same just a tad bit nicer. I guess I think you should live your life trying to make the world a better place just for the sake of trying to make the world a better place. I don't do it to be remembered fondly or to secure my place in a make believe afterlife.
2007-04-10 10:13:48 · answer #5 · answered by glitterkittyy 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
just from a logical point of view there is a major unsupported premise: 'if there is a benevolent god, he will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in him'. If you can provide some support for this, your argument is probably as good; if not, not.
2007-04-10 10:17:05 · answer #6 · answered by a 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes... far better. It also has the advantage that if there is a God, it will actually get you into heaven. Does anyone think that God won't see through the "let's pretend to be nice and worship God just so we can get into heaven" crowd?
Far better to just spend your life being as decent, honest, helpful etc etc as you can manage. If God exists he'll know whether you've done your best, if he doesn't then you've still done your best... a win-win situation.
2007-04-10 10:13:58 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sounds okay to me but it's hardly a dilemma given the weakness of the Pascal's wager argument.
2007-04-10 10:13:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes. You can go one better and just make the world a better place not worrying about being remembered.
2007-04-10 10:13:14 · answer #9 · answered by novangelis 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2007-04-10 10:12:58 · answer #10 · answered by Dr Universe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋