Apparently an inordinate number of believers think that Pascal's Wager is a great argument for belief and are unaware that it is not. It was torn apart by Voltaire and Diderot. Considering both of these gentleman lived 200 years ago, it is somewhat odd to see this still given credence. Briefly, Pascal's Wager states:
- If you believe in God and God exists, you go to heaven: your gain is infinite.
- If you believe in God and God does not exist, you gain nothing & lose nothing.
But Pascal assumes several things that are not logical. First, no one can just flip a switch in their head and start believing. Not sincerely. Would you be able to stop believing in God tomorrow? Could you honestly say that you could switch to Judaism tomorrow and immediately stop believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Could you suddenly start believing in Allah and Mohammed as the prophet of Allah?
Obviously not. No more than the atheist or the agnostic can suddenly start believing in your god tomorrow. In fact, to suggest that they do so is offensive and condescending. It implies that their beliefs (or lack thereof) are not as strongly held as your own or that their beliefs (or lack thereof) do not matter. What you are really telling people to do is to feign belief in your God. If you feign belief, you go to heaven? Really? Do you really believe that your god will reward false belief and cowardly bet-hedging as opposed to rewarding honest skepticism? Why do you suppose your god thinks that belief in him is more important than kindness, generosity, or humility? Since you believe your god knows all, he would immediately know that the so-called "believer" is a faker and a liar.
Would a just and benevolent god not judge people based on their own merits? If he judges people based on if they believe in him, then most of the planet is roasting in Hell despite them being decent human beings. Now, someone out there will probably quote scripture to back up the idea that the Judeo-Christian God puts more emphasis on the appearance of belief than on honest disbelief. Let's think for a second how moral that concept is. But it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter because Pascal's Wager doesn't work for a second reason. Pascal and I might both be wrong and the creator and designer of the universe might be Baal. Or a number of different gods. When you die, you could be held to account by a god that is not the Judeo-Christian God. And you and I in that case would meet up again in the Hell of that religion.
It also doesn't work for a third reason: anyone who is promoting Pascal's Wager is promoting fear. It is fear of Hell and eternal damnation that they are advocating. If you believe in God, so the saying goes, you will be rewarded or get no reward. But the opposite is accurate as well, is it not? If you do NOT believe, you will burn in Hell for all eternity according to Pascal. An unfriendly wager indeed.
As usual, I welcome your comments!
