Theory or Manipulation: Did Pascal Truly Have a Wager?
Few things in society can be as convincing as the promise of reward and the draw of self-preservation. Pascal’s Wager is a theory that draws on those exact human emotions, rather than on logic itself, and because of that, I myself deem it as a weak, and possibly invalid, argument. In this paper I will talk about how Pascal promises little or no loss from believing, the fault that Pascal does not address the possibility of more than just a Christian God, and the fact that choosing what to believe is deemed impossible.
Pascal’s Wager states that believing in the Christian God will earn you infinite reward; presumably heaven, however Pascal’s belief that this reward system is based on believing in the one God he himself believed in is solely an assumption and fairly bias, causing this premise to be considered invalid and untrue. He roughly makes the claim “if one does not believe in the Christian God and the Christian God does not exist then one gains little or nothing.” On the contrary, should Pascal be wrong about the distribution of infinite reward and punishment, the disbelief in said God could bring a lot to gain, perhaps even the same reward that Pascal …show more content…
Although shown to be logically invalid, Pascal’s Wager can definitely be said to leave a haunting thought in the mind of an unbeliever, and although it may not completely change everyone’s mind, it undoubtedly has the power to make anyone, religious or not, truly consider the so called “infinite rewards” theism may offer in the world beyond the one we
Few things in society can be as convincing as the promise of reward and the draw of self-preservation. Pascal’s Wager is a theory that draws on those exact human emotions, rather than on logic itself, and because of that, I myself deem it as a weak, and possibly invalid, argument. In this paper I will talk about how Pascal promises little or no loss from believing, the fault that Pascal does not address the possibility of more than just a Christian God, and the fact that choosing what to believe is deemed impossible.
Pascal’s Wager states that believing in the Christian God will earn you infinite reward; presumably heaven, however Pascal’s belief that this reward system is based on believing in the one God he himself believed in is solely an assumption and fairly bias, causing this premise to be considered invalid and untrue. He roughly makes the claim “if one does not believe in the Christian God and the Christian God does not exist then one gains little or nothing.” On the contrary, should Pascal be wrong about the distribution of infinite reward and punishment, the disbelief in said God could bring a lot to gain, perhaps even the same reward that Pascal …show more content…
Although shown to be logically invalid, Pascal’s Wager can definitely be said to leave a haunting thought in the mind of an unbeliever, and although it may not completely change everyone’s mind, it undoubtedly has the power to make anyone, religious or not, truly consider the so called “infinite rewards” theism may offer in the world beyond the one we