Do you often make decisions based on shadows?

Question

Blaise Pascal, 17thC philosopher, argued for a belief in God on the grounds that if God DID NOT exist the belief would only cost a weekly trip to church, and piety - but if God DID exist it would earn you eternal rewards. It's called "Pascal's wager", and an obviously faulty argument for belief or anything else. But don't we often make decisions for fear of imagined risks, or for imagined potential rewards? Do you? Why?

The point of course, is that Pascal proposed a wager against imagined odds

Answer 1

Thats a really good question have a star!
I don't really have an answer to why we do it but we do. Its a way of controling the masses.
for instance. Once a month or so my manager will tell us to make sure everyone looks decent, ironed shirt creased pants etc..., and have their truck looking emaculate because the regional supervisor is coming in and if we look like a bag of crushed donuts we'll lose work for the day.... the following moring comes and to everyones suprise there is no regional supervisor but everyone looks tip top! We fall for it everytime! I've worked there for a long time and have only seen the regional supervisor once.
I also used to manage a Mcdonalds and every so often if my crew were acting like a bunch of teens (to their defense, its just how teens act in a crappy job) horseplaying, shirts untucked, not listening to a word i'd say. I would walk out of the office and say "Listen up. The GM is in the area and is inspecting the stores, everyone look good" Shirts were imediatly tucked in, hats straitend and people started cleaning... Alot more effective then just yelling, that bit gets old.
Well im rambling now. Once again great question

Answer 2

I don't know about shadows, but I believe we do make a lot of decisions and assumptions based on risk assessment. Of course this can lead to a lot of problems for everyone, but how else are we supposed to get through life on a daily basis? We don't have enough time in the day to analyze everything and come to a better determination of the truth UNLESS we can trust our own finely honed intuitions. Is that what you mean by "shadows"? If so, then yes I often do make assessments based on my intuitions.

Answer 3

Shadows, darkness, fear... are these inherently negative? Fear of dying could be the turning point of one's drive to overcome illness and desire life. Fear of seeing your children go through unnecessary negative experiences may encourage you to shape up and get it together. I am not saying that fear should be our main intrinsic motivator...but by the time fear appears in our brains there's always a personal reality being visited inside of us, and it deserves to be listened to. "Shadows" or the unknown possibilities are born from personal perspectives, which come from personal experiences and are worth exploring.

Answer 4

No. I don't make decisions based on any imagined anything. I know of Pascal. Seems like a bloody game to me, & who would play it? Eternal rewards. Ah, such seduction! If I say my prayers, may I have my cookies & milk now PLEASE?

Answer 5

i never really decided yet, but if the shadow is all i have...
the shadow is all i'd get....
just as long as i dont let the shadow take over me....
anyways, the mind of the wise always find its way out in the dark
(and we'd never know what could be the light at the end of the tunnel,
it could be the train coming about to hit us head on)
=))))))))))))))))))))))))))

but despite of everything, all my personal questions remain:
Why are we Human beings so complex? Why cant anybody love me as me(Hoping there is a God that really can)
and if believing in God is like following my faith into the dark..
i'd actually go through it, not to find out if he exists(for the light to save me).......
but to find the answers i seek, whether or not- i find them.

Answer 6

My self ... NO ! but it seams many a humans do , follow the fear of the unknown , fear of what if !!, I my self just follow the humans laws and decent morals to survive in this society.

Answer 7

I make observations based on shadows and take decisions
based on facts.

Answer 8

Pascals wager- or Pascals gambit was a subject discussed in school, similar to the what you outlined in your question above. He claimed that people makes wagers with themselves when they believe one or the other. Fair enough. He was intelligent and logical enough to know that every believer and non believers arguments were all subjective, since there was no way to prove God, if I still remember this past class correctly.

As a mathematician, he had the following accomplishments
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Nationality: French

Blaise Pascal, French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, considered one of the great minds in Western intellectual history. Inventor of the first mechanical adding machine.

Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand on June 19, 1623, and his family settled in Paris in 1629. Under the tutelage of his father, Pascal soon proved himself a mathematical prodigy, and at the age of 16 he formulated one of the basic theorems of projective geometry, known as Pascal's theorem and described in his Essai pour les coniques (Essay on Conics, 1639).

In 1642 he invented the first mechanical adding machine. Pascal proved by experimentation in 1648 that the level of the mercury column in a barometer is determined by an increase or decrease in the surrounding atmospheric pressure rather than by a vacuum, as previously believed. This discovery verified the hypothesis of the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli concerning the effect of atmospheric pressure on the equilibrium of liquids. Six years later, in conjunction with the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, Pascal formulated the mathematical theory of probability, which has become important in such fields as actuarial, mathematical, and social statistics and as a fundamental element in the calculations of modern theoretical physics.

Pascal's other important scientific contributions include the derivation of Pascal's law or principle, which states that fluids transmit pressures equally in all directions, and his investigations in the geometry of infinitesimal. His methodology reflected his emphasis on empirical experimentation as opposed to analytical, a priori methods, and he believed that human progress is perpetuated by the accumulation of scientific discoveries resulting from such experimentation.

Pascal espoused Jansenism and in 1654 entered the Jansenist community at Port Royal, where he led a rigorously ascetic life until his death eight years later. In 1656 he wrote the famous 18 Lettres provinciales (Provincial Letters), in which he attacked the Jesuits for their attempts to reconcile 16th-century naturalism with orthodox Roman Catholicism.

His most positive religious statement appeared posthumously (he died August 19, 1662); it was published in fragmentary form in 1670 as Apologie de la religion Chrétienne (Apology of the Christian Religion). In these fragments, which later were incorporated into his major work, he posed the alternatives of potential salvation and eternal damnation, with the implication that only by conversion to Jansenism could salvation be achieved. Pascal asserted that whether or not salvation was achieved, humanity's ultimate destiny is an afterlife belonging to a supernatural realm that can only be known intuitively. Pascal's final important work was Pensées sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets (Thoughts on Religion and on Other Subjects), also published in 1670. In the Pensées Pascal attempted to explain and justify the difficulties of human life by the doctrine of original sin, and he contended that revelation can be comprehended only by faith, which in turn is justified by revelation.

Pascal's writings urging acceptance of the Christian life contain frequent applications of the calculations of probability; he reasoned that the value of eternal happiness is infinite and that although the probability of gaining such happiness by religion may be small it is infinitely greater than by any other course of human conduct or belief. A reclassification of the Pensées, a careful work begun in 1935 and continued by several scholars, does not reconstruct the Apologie, but allows the reader to follow the plan that Pascal himself would have followed.

Pascal was one of the most eminent mathematicians and physicists of his day and one of the greatest mystical writers in Christian literature. His religious works are personal in their speculation on matters beyond human understanding. He is generally ranked among the finest French polemicists, especially in the Lettres provinciales, a classic in the literature of irony. Pascal's prose style is noted for its originality and, in particular, for its total lack of artifice. He affects his readers by his use of logic and the passionate force of his dialectic.