What is Pascal’s Wager?

Question

I have read about it on this forum and have done the google search for it, but I have yet to find out what it really is.

Do I need to go to a book store and buy it? Can I find it by asking for a copy of “Pascal’s Wager”?

Please help and direct me to the source.

Thank you!

Wonderful answers all - for I have seen all the the net provides but my question was and is..... "where can I see the real stuff!".

Spikey: you got it going on. - One of the few so far to awnser the the question....

Last part is where I can get the real text to read for myself. I have read all the internet stuff and it does not give all. (Like some other text I know) and am still curious wanting to read such stuuf as this)

Sam

Answer 1

Pascal was a brilliant mathematician and defender of the Christian faith. The wager is found in Pensees, an assortment of notes found in his home after his death and published by his friends. We can't ever know what he had in mind.

However, almost certainly, Pascal would never had seriously thought that one could just believe in God on the basis of some wager. That would have been against everything he believed.

However, the wager does point to good reasons to seek God as opposed to just willing oneself to believe in God. Seeking God may indeed lead to belief.

Answer 2

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 (some people pray 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 3

Pascal's Wager is an "argument for the existence of God" It was coined by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), and he reckoned that, however long the odds AGAINST God's existence might be, there is an even larger assymetry in the penalty for guessing wrong. Take a simple LOGIC MATRIX a square, divided into four segments 1. God Exists, 2. God does NOT exist, 3. You believe in God, 4. You do NOT believe in God, then work out the consequences...

"You'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss in heaven. If you are wrong it won't make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turn out to be wrong, you get eternal damnation, whereas if you are right, it makes no difference. On the face of it, it is a no-brainer. Believe in God!"

The trouble is.....when you examine the logic, it comes unstuck.

You can DECIDE to go to church, and you can DECIDE to recite the Nicene Creed, and you can DECIDE to swear on a stack of bibles that you BELIEVE every single word inside them. But none of that can make you ACTUALLY believe it if you don't. Therefore, Pascal's Wager could only EVER be an argument for FEIGNING a belief in God. And if the God that you claim to believe in is the omniscient (all-knowing) kind, then he would see through the deception.

And why, in any case, do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do if you want to please God is to BELIEVE in him? Isn't it just as likely that God should reward kindness, or generosity, or humility? Or even sincerity? What if God is a scientist who regards an honest seeking after truth as a supreme virtue? Indeed, wouldn't the designer of the universe HAVE to be a scientist? Would you BET on God's valuing dishonestly FAKED belief (or even HONEST belief) over honest scepticism?

Mightn't Pascal have been better off wagering on no God at all rather than on the wrong God? What if God DOES exist, but the God who confronts you when you die turns out to be Baal, and Baal is just as jealous as his old rival Yahweh used to be? The sheer number of potential Gods (and Goddesses) on whom you might bet vitiates Pascal's whole logic.

It could be said that you will lead a better, fuller life if you just bet on God NOT existing, than if you bet on his existing and therefore squander your precious time on worshipping him, sacrificing to him, fighting and dying for him, etc

Look at the millions upon millions of people who have died and the evil consequences that can flow from religious belief and observance. Iraq? Afghanistan? Northern Ireland?

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Pascal's original version of the wager is in the book "Pensees." It should be available in larger bookstores, and a google search for "pensees" gives several etexts if you would prefer that format.

In the etexts that I browsed online, the section of the Pensees where Pascal outlines the wager is toward the end of Chapter 3 "Of the Necessity of the Wager."

Answer 5

You can Google it and what you get is a very loose synopsis of Pascal's premise that it is a safer wager to believe in God, just in case He does exist, than to reject Him, because if He doesn't exist you still live a life that is good and beneficial, but if He does, then you have a lot to lose by not believing in Him. In shorter words, you don't want to bet (wager) that God doesn't exist because the cost of losing is too high.

Answer 6

Isn't that where Pascal says you might as well believe in God and be religious, because if you're wrong, you've only lost a little bit of fun in this world. But if you don't believe in God and you're wrong, then you might lose out on an eternity of good stuff in the afterlife.

Answer 7

Wait guys, I'm confused now. It's Pascal's wager, but she wasn't posing it to us. What do the rules say about this case?

Answer 8

in short its the argument that one should belive in christianity over disbelief(particularly atheism) because if christianity is right then you've gained, and if atheism is right you've lost nothing. yet if you went atheist and christainity is right then you lose alot.

but it ignores the idea of God having the perceptive skills of a third grader and being able to distinguish between honest belief and hedging your bets.

Answer 9

Three dollars on Crazy Legs.

Answer 10

http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=AkkgKo.zLv_11_6I9ihTecHd7BR.?p=Pascal%27s+Wager