I have to shake my head. Do people really think Pascal's wager makes any ******* sense at all...?

Question

...or are they just mindlessly grasping at straws hoping to trick anyone they can? How thoughtless must you be to rehash it?

Answer 1

I think it's kind of senseless just to say you believe in something on the off chance that it exists. I personally believe in God, but it makes no sense to me that (presuming he DOES exist) he would reward people who give belief lip-service. Better an honest atheist than a hypocritical pseudo-believer, in my opinion.

Answer 2

I remember being on another religious forum where one holy roller was just being refuted left and right. The more claims he made, the more people exposed his fallacies. Finally he just threw in Pascal's wager, even though he had already started with that, and it got debunked every week when he'd ask it. You could tell from the speed and tone of his replies that he felt his beliefs were being threatened, and he was just trying harder and harder to grasp to what little he could.

I think some of these people ARE stuck in the rut of "repeat something enough times and it will make it true".

Answer 3

Yes the big hole in Pascal's wager that the bigots ignore is which out of all the hundreds of gods and godesses do you choose to believe in

Answer 4

Pascal's wager is a logical progression... If you can't know for sure until you die, isn't it too important an issue to have been wrong...

There are all kinds of quippy things people use that make a lot of sense, but don't after you analize it to death.

"Your first guess is usually correct..."

"If it can go wrong, it will...."

"The simplest answer is usually the right answer...."

and so on.

But if you look carefully at them, they are bunk... Right.... well, they are quippy and "Quippy thoughts are usually the best... " ;o)

Answer 5

Pascal's Wager works on the people who use it.

It's akin to wrapping a towel around your head against the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. It reasons if you can't see it, it can't see you. Mind-bogglingly stupid.

Answer 6

Well unfortunately yes they do.
We all know the fundamentalists reaction to the "Atheist Wager"

The counter-arguments/criticisms of Pascal or Lewis or...
have been available for centuries.

Those who purport PW to be viable are either not well read or do not care to consider the problems contained therein.

PW is something I usually find to be extolled to the minds of children and the easily persuaded. [e.g. "Jesus Camp"]

Answer 7

It seems quite a few must. since someone mentions it at least once a day. Pascal himself thought it was brilliant. He may have been a great mathematician for his time, but critical thinking was not his forte.

Answer 8

It's been around how long now, like Paley's Watchmaker (now plagiarized by talk buffoon Dennis Prager as "a computer found on Jupiter")?

I don't expect it to go away. Tithe-seekers never let up in their quest for cash.

Answer 9

Ah..My good man, I have spent many a month on Yahoo! Answers, R&S: In that time, I have seen and/or answered at least 400 "Why are atheists on R&S?" questions. Upwards of 1000 "If we came from Monkeys, why are there still moneys" questions. And FAR too many questions concerning Pascal's wager to possibly count. I fear they are IN FACT....THAT stupid...

Needless to say...I'm a damn drunk by now.
-Uranus

Answer 10

Seeing man has created over 8,000 Gods---that's a very poor wager--at least 8000 to 1- that you've picked the right God--& if any Gods exist at all!!mankind has never had any proof for any of them!!