Is there anyone out there who REALLY buys into Pascal's Wager?

Question

Morkie, you are irrational. Perhaps the God in pascal's wager is the flying spaghetti monster....would it make you believe in the flying spaghetti monster?

Answer 1

When I need an excuse to drink, sure.

Answer 2

No. The part I don't buy into is the part where Pascal asserts that if someone does NOT believe in God, that person will go to hell. Due to that, the entire wager thing falls flat for me.

Answer 3

What can one possibly gain by disbelief in God? Until you can come up with a reason why life without God is attractive, Pascal's Wager is perfectly rational.

Edit: Pascal's Wager is based on the idea that if you are unsure, you should be a theist rather than an atheist because a theist stands to gain all and lose nothing, while an atheist stands to gain nothing and lose all. My point above is that the only way you can overcome Pascal's argument is by identifying something that a theist loses by embracing God. Or in other words what does the atheist gain by denying God? Your flying spaghetti monster objection is not valid because the theist embraces God, not a known falsehood. The agnostic is uncertain of God, and is not convinced as to whether He exists or not, while the sane person knows the flying spaghetti monster does not exist. Eventually one moves beyond Pascal's wager, because "he who seeks always finds" and if you search for God you do find Him. If the wager causes someone to take that first step towards God it has accomplished its purpose.

Answer 4

I did for awhile there when I was a Christian. That's what religious indoctrination will do to you. You will firmly believe that either your god exists or he doesn't; you believe that any other god is false. So then you play Pascal's Wager.

Answer 5

I personally think it would be a weak reason to seek GOD. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So who knows? The fact that people would reject such common sense deductive reasoning gives me a clear view of the mind of the unbeliever as opposed to the nonbeliever.

Answer 6

Flying Spaghetti Monster analogy would only apply if it included concept of heaven/hell which I assume it does.

The great scribe Homer said it best......

Suppose we've chosen the wrong god. Every time we go to church we're just making him madder and madder.
— Homer Simpson

Also check out: http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1987/ch871223.gif

Answer 7

Yeah, it worked on me for a couple years when I was a teenager.

And every so often you'll find someone defending it, saying that it is 50/50 whether or not God exist.

Remember, people are not natural statisticians. As a friend of my father always said when he bought his weekly lottery ticket... "It's 50/50, either you win or you don't."

Answer 8

You be amazed how many stupid atheists it shuts up. I used it for almost 8 years before someone pointed out its flaw. (Hint:It doesn't work on Polytheists)

Answer 9

Many of the Christians do.

Answer 10

I promise you, there are. I was that way for a long time. Years. As was my spouse.