Blaise pascals wager argues that since there is much to gain and relatively little to lose, the wise decision is to seek a relationship with god and live a christian life. Is pascals wager a good argument for believing in god. With the wager, pascal attempted to provide a compelling reason to believe in god based upon happiness and possible outcomes. Its untenable because it asks one to believe in a superhero god, like superman zeus, on the mere possibility he might exist. He said that it is not possible to prove or disprove that god exists. Blaise pascal 16231662 was a french mathematician and physicist and made great progress in the formulation of the laws of probability. Clarify the meaning of pascals sentence, the heart has its reasons which reason does not know. Paul tobin is the eisneraward winning, new york timesbestselling author of bandette, colder, and many other comic books and graphic series. If you believe in god only as a bet, that is certainly not a deep, mature, or adequate faith. You sit there and weigh the good and the bad of belief vs nonbelief and existence of god vs nonexistence and make the conscious choice that the maximum benefit is gained through belief. Therefore weve no reason to think that 1 is true, and we can assume any number of possibilities.
Pascals wager, practical argument for belief in god formulated by blaise pascal. The idea behind it is that, if all things were equal, its better to believe than not to believe, because the consequences of believing and being wrong nothing compared to th. As often happens, the outside promised a little more than it delivered. Its argument is rooted in what has subsequently become known as game theory. It posits that humans bet with their lives that god either exists or does not pascal argues that a rational person should live as though god exists and seek to believe in god. Pascals wager assumes that people can choose what they believe, when this simply isnt true. Pascals reasoning was that since nothing is known for certainity, the christian faith may be as good as any other belief, and since the possible gain from belief is so much greater than the possible gain from unbelief, christianity was the bet that gave the highest gain. The manygods objection the most common criticism directed toward the wager is that pascal has set his betting partition too narrowly, that there are possibilities that pascal ignored and that drastically affect the wager. In taking pascals wager, rota confronts the usual objections to the wager and argues that they all miss the point. Galactus or dark side or any other god depicted from your favorite comic book. I propose to reformulate pascals wager as urging those who doubt gods existence to embrace a doubt of desire rather than a doubt of indifference.
If you got more than a bminus in a high school science class at a legitimate public school, even in america, youre capable of seeing through his poorlyrendered ideas. What is distinctive about pascals approach to the latter question is that he thinks that we can answer it without. Pascals wager jack fishers official publishing blog. But if he did then pascals wager wouldnt even apply to him because hed have already decided the issue. But if the truth of the comic books story were an open question they are. Pascals wager is not untenable because the different religions contradict each other.
What about a single allpowerful god who only lets atheists into heaven, because god is an atheist too. Armed with the results of critical historical research and a mind free from the shackles of dogma, paul tobin dissects the bible and the historical jesus in a way only a sceptic can. No, its not a good argument, not even from the christian perspective. This means, first, that they should hope and therefore desire that they might find a higher meaning and value to their existence by making contact with a beneficent power beyond the. Explain whether you consider pascals wager a proof of gods existence or not. Reconstruct pascals wager as carefully as possible. Christians are to share and proclaim the gospel of jesus christ, which alone is the power of. First of all, i love the cover, with its metallic sheen and grunge look, and the title pascals wa ger. If you and the other intellects greater than pascal sarcasm actually read more than comics and reddit youd know that he has practical suggestions about the steps to take, that he didnt claim his wager was a proof of gods existence, that his wager was a thought experiment for the agnostic on the fence, and that pascal knew all too well that. He may not have used the two words pascal wager anywhere in the video, but the core of his message is exactly the same.
The essential component of the argument is the relative payoffs and costs for. The dc and marvel comic book universes contradict each other. Pascals wager also does a great job of imitating the multipath set up that the genre is known, bringing things full circle on a regular basis with a newly opened gate or reachable ladder. Michael gurian, author of the minds of boys james connor gives a racy account of a remarkable man. Pascals wager the whole thing on the way to ithaca. If the christian god does exist, the agnostic gains. Faith, evidence and the abundant life ebook 9780830899999 by michael w. Pascal argues that it is always a better bet to believe in god, because the expected value to be gained from believing in god is always greater. He guides us through the intricacies of modern archaeology and comparative.
Pascals wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenthcentury french philosopher, mathematician and physicist, blaise pascal 16231662. Michael rota explores the dynamics of doubt, evidence, and decisionmaking in order to consider what is necessary for people to embrace the christian faithand the difference it makes in peoples lives. The story is based on something said by seventeenth century mathematician blaise pascal. My whole problem with pascals wager is that once youve recognized it, youve pretty much condemned yourself to hell. When jill turns to colleague sam bakalis for advice, he challenges her to make pascals wagerto bet that god exists by living as if he does. It reasons thereupon,and calls it nature, necessity, and can believe nothing else. His argument for belief in god was based not on an appeal to evidence that god exists, but rather on the idea that it is in our own interests to believe in god and it is therefore rational for us to do so. If the christian god does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. Hovind, who i feel has a serious credibility problem in terms of credentials, his methods for contesting evolution leave a lot to be desired. Either something makes sense to you to varying degrees, or it doesnt. Pascals wager ontario consultants on religious tolerance.
Pascals wager is usually so mischaracterized that i cringe, so i welcomed rotas effort to rehabilitate and update the wager, which he does well. Its called soonish, and jeez, wed appreciate if youd grab a copy. Only nontheists go to heaven 2003 by richard carrier. What major objections can you construct to the wager. At the end of the post you propose the atheist wager in the exact framework of pascals wager. Bandette, drawn by colleen coover, was awarded the eisner award for best digital series in 20, 2016, and 2017.
I am sure many theists and atheists have heard of pascals wager. He is considered to be the father of modern probability theory. Math professor and atheist jill mcgavock feels helpless. Have i mentioned lately that me and kelly wrote a book about future science and technology thats loaded with brand new comics. After tackling the free will defence to the problem of evil, i thought id take a look at one of the least imposing arguments im familiar with for gods existence, yet one of the most prevalent. Pascals wager is aimed at people for whom the question is undecided.
Her mother is losing the mental capabilities that made her what she isa brilliant pathologist. The bible is not proof of god any more than a spiderman comic is proof of spiderman and not believing in a guy who, if he exists, has used all the magic at his disposal to erase any evidence for his existence is. Since your whole argument is the validity of choosing the opposite of pascals proposal, by your reasoning, living an evil life would be the opposing choice. A mathematician explains why the arguments for god just dons add up. I believe there are very sound responses to each of his points mentioned below and i plan on discussing them in the next. Pascals wager is the name given to an argument put forward by the french philosopher and mathematician blaise pascal in the 17th century. Pascal argued that, while its impossible to prove whether or not god exists, people should believe in god anyway. Pascals wager presupposes ignorance god cant be proven or disproven through reason. In conclusion, pascals wager, while an interesting piece of philosophical thought, should have no place in a christians evangelistic and apologetic repertoire.
Pascal s wager religion an argument for theism and specifically christianity, according to the writer maintaining that belief in christianity ensures happiness in this life and offers the possibility of eternal happiness should god exist, whereas atheism, even if it brings happiness in this life, offers no hope of eternal happiness. Wed love you to buy this book, and hope you find this page convenient in locating a place of purchase. So those 2 things increase the chances that theism is safe, thus pascals wager is infallible. Tobin shows the bible, with its numerous contradictions, historical errors and scientific inaccuracies, cannot be considered inerrant. Blaise pascal 16231662 was a 17 th century french mathematician and scientist who, sadly, died at the age of 39 in a vehicle accident. Confirmed atheist jill mcgavock faces the mental deterioration of he.
Is it safer to believe in god even if there is no proof that one exists. Pascals wager also known as pascals gambit is blaise pascals application of decision theory to the belief in god. Pascals wager debunked blaise pascal refuted youtube. Pascals wager or pascals gambit is the name for an idea that blaise pascal had. But it is something, it is a start, it is enough to dam the tide of atheism.
Pascals wager refuted by the great philosopher, homer j. My only problem with the book is the tendency for connor at times to overdramatize events. In addition, pascals wager does not prove the existence of gd, but the logic in believing or striving to believe in him. If god existed, and the person believed in god, he would be rewarded with happiness forever. So far we have discussed a number of arguments for or against the. The objection concedes that it makes sense to think of the. For those who say that more evidence is needed before christianity can be considered rational, rota provides a solid response. It is rational to seek a relationship with god and live a deeply christian life, because there is very much to gain and relatively little to lose 12. In a major biography of blaise pascal, james connor explores both the intellectual giant whose theory of probability paved the way for modernity and the devout religious mystic who dared apply probability to faith. Here is a brief summary of john allen paulos critique of pascals wager in his book irreligion.
1243 51 1162 1082 1296 1075 1520 412 195 744 106 618 383 1511 212 307 1334 897 834 419 53 88 150 1624 487 1449 353 1362 885 1218 396 1125 7 1194 313 80 823 1426 282 579 699