Would a Christian kindly explain the horrific dangers of the “Atheist’s Wager”?

Question

Here is the “Atheist’s Wager” – the underlying belief of MANY people, including some Christians:

“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 may judge you on your merits coupled with your commitments, and not just on whether or not you believed in him.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager#Atheist.27s_Wager

Until I became a Christian, this was the philosophy I lived regardless of my “stated” religion as a Catholic, Mystic, Agnostic, or Atheist. For, underneath or despite my chosen “religion”, I held to the above moral principle.

But there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the so-called “atheist’s wager”...

Could a Christian who knows the Gospel explain the error of this philosophy so that other readers may hear and not fall into this tragic pit?

Answer 1

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.


No matter what amount of works do we cannot earn our way into Heaven. It is not possible. We are all sinners and cannot cleanse ourselves of sin. Only the one who is sinless can accomplish that. Jesus is the only sinless person to have ever lived. His blood on the cross is the only sin-cleansing agent in existence.

Unless the blood of Jesus is applied to a person's life, that person can do NOTHING to obtain a place in Heaven.

Answer 2

It is simple. Christinsanity, because Eve ate an apple, claims everybody is going to Hell unless they believe everything the priests say, and do everything the priests tell them to do.
So the idea of a benevolent rational God goes out the window and instead there is a God who hates all humans except if they are total slaves.

I do not know where this so called "Atheists Wager" comes from.
It certainly does not match any concept of atheism I am familiar with.
If I do not believe in Gods or in an afterlife, then I see no sense in being concerned over what would happen to me after I die, since I simply would not exist.
I suspect that this is a believers rewording of the "Pascal's Wager" which has one huge flaw that everybody misses.

With Pascal you have the case that the wager only has force if you do not believe God exists. It is because, as Pascal states in his preamble, it is the question of God's existance being unprovable that lets you use a cost benefit analyses to decide how to behave.
However as soon as you believe you cease to be basing your decision on the utility matrix and are deciding as if you have an absolute answer to the question of whether God exists or not.
Only an Agnostic can actually apply Pascal's wager. It does not matter if he decides atheist or theist. If he ceases to be agnostic, then the wager ceases to be a wager.
The problems with his utility table are secondary to this.

Answer 3

There are a number of faults with the earlier philosophy, which would be the relativism of the morality, as for an atheist, there is no standard of ethics (killing kittens could be completely acceptable to a person as "making the world a better place".)

The gospels teach that humanity is fallen and sinful, and in need of salvation through Christ Jesus, for pardon of sin and eternal life. It's what I believe.

This was a great question.

Answer 4

Unfortunately we can never be good enough. We are told that our righteousness is as filthy rags. No matter how good you are. No matter how much good you do, you righteousness is still as filthy rags in the sight of God. You can never do enough good to be seen as good based upon your own merits in God's eyes.

Thankfully there is hope. If we accept what Jesus did for us when God looks at us He does not see our righteousness. He sees Jesus' righteousness.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Answer 5

The danger is in believing that you can earn the favor of 'a benevolent God.'
There is no need or way to earn this.
There is more of an explanation of course but this is not really the place. Have a conversation with someone you trust. There is nothing wrong with questions, that is how we learn more about God.

Answer 6

What's wrong with this 'wager' is that it doesn't allow any particular religious group's leaders to control you and use your votes and money . What a terrible disaster this would be . Of COURSE you have to give your allegience to a particular group depending on which interpetation of the fictional books ( Bible , Quo'ran , Book of Later Day Saints , Dianetics , etc.) you would like to purchase .
After all we know that just because a god is good, forgiving ,merciful , loving of what he created ... He WOULD send us straight into a lake of fire for all eternity if we didn't join the organization of the ONE true religion . which ever one THAT is ? !

Answer 7

if we do not stand with God we stand agents Him(He said so)
Jesus said if I never knew you I will spit you out of my mouth.
if we refuse to get to know the truth which is Jesus He will not know us and if he spits us out there is no one to plea our case to the Father.
it does not matter how good your works are if you have no faith, as we are saved by Grace through Faith and we must work in our faith to keep it from dieing

Answer 8

The problem with that whole thing is that before I became a Christian I didn't have that morale principle. I did whatever I want, whenever I wanted with no regard to who it affected or hurt including myself. In my opinion most people don't hold to the morale standard you described, they hold to the one that lived before.

Answer 9

If you become Christian purely to save your own skin, then even if there is a God, you'd still burn.

Answer 10

Sure ...... their god is malevolent and not benevolent, an unforgiving all forgiving god.

In the Gospel, jesus their christ said only through him people go to their god. Therefore if you follow the atheist wager, you will never go to their god ..... because the atheist wager put the emphasis on a "benevolent god" which is obviously absent in christianity, because he created the sin and place a bet with his favourite buddy satan using humans as plush toys.

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midnitepoets .... which god? Please choose one from the 50,000 available and the 60,000,000,000,000,000 unlisted.