1. Introduction:
a. -Religion has been around as long humans, no matter how you believe they were created
-Christianity (what Pascal uses as the basis of his argument) is one of, if not the biggest religions in the world
-The wager is part of Apologetic philosophy, meaning that Pascal is defending his position/belief in an argument with the use of information
-Pascal’s wager was meant to show that while not believing in God will only have loss of some things, believing in God will allow you to gain everything.
b. Thesis: Pascal’s Wager calls for the need for people to choose to believe in something, to allow them the chance of gaining more than ever, and with that your chances for gain will be higher with the belief of a god, but the highest with the belief in the God of the Bible.
c. –since Christianity is the largest religion globally, it has the most people behind it meaning that the probability of God existing is higher with that many people in the religion, and with the belief you gain infinitely if God does exist.
-the Wager has been proven to show that it has been said to “gambling people” in order to make them think about converting to Christianity; wagers involve probability as does gambling, so the gamblers have the mind ready to think of everything involved in wagering, so they know the best way to go about choosing their outcome in the wager
-logically, the belief in God is there because the Wager shows the outcomes of each possibility, and only one is good, which is believing in God and he does exist. If that were to come true, then you can gain everything, while believing and the existence being false, you don’t lose too much.
2. Explanatory Paragraph
a. Pascal’s Wager is #233 of the Pensées and talks about how on...
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... Pascal and his writings, but from the research I have done and examined, the conclusion that men should be thinking logically, not rationally as rationality is for the mind, not heart, and see the Wager has one good outcome, which is to believe.
b. The argument in the defense of Pascal’s Wager has many flaws
- If Christian God does not exist, what if another God does
1. Logically, it only makes sense to go into the faith that most others have gotten into, with the largest followings and one of the oldest formations.
- What if there is no god and everything was a test of mind vs heart and the rationality of humans
1. Faith is in the heart and as has been said, the heart has reason which reason cannot understand. So if it were a fight over finding rationality, it would not be fully supported because finding the complete and total reason for faith will never be found.
belief is not to produce true belief. Instead theistic belief allows the believer to avoid
When I was at school in Vermont, one of my teachers explained to me Pascal's Wager. According to this teacher, the philosopher and mathematician Pascal had tried to establish the costs and benefits of believing in God. He saw it in this way: you can either believe in God or not. If you do believe in God, and there is in fact no God, then you will perhaps have spent some extra energy unnecessarily abstaining from certain pleasures and wasting your Sunday mornings in Church, but overall you did not give up too much. And, it could be argued, you may have actually treated your fellow men more kindly then you would have otherwise. If, however, there is a God, and you believed in him, then you get eternal salvation.
The controversial topic involving the existence of God has been the pinnacle of endless discourse surrounding the concept of religion in the field of philosophy. However, two arguments proclaim themselves to be the “better” way of justifying the existence of God: The Cosmological Argument and the Mystical Argument. While both arguments attempt to enforce strict modus operandi of solidified reasoning, neither prove to be a better way of explaining the existence of God. The downfall of both these arguments rests on commitment of fallacies and lack of sufficient evidence, as a result sabotaging their validity in the field of philosophy and faith.
Throughout the course of history, man has looked to religion for answers. Curiosity as to how we got here and why we are have driven people to seek out answers to these somewhat unanswerable questions. Over the past few thousand years, several varying religions have been established, some more prominent than others. Many of them share a similar story of a divine creator who has always been and will always be. In the case of Christianity, whether true or not, it has proven to be beneficial to society as a whole. The Bible set the standard for the moral compass that humans live their lives by to this day. The key fundamental problem with religion, although not the fault of religion, is that man has often used it as a gateway to power and prominence. In the case of the 18th century Gallican church, the French were abusing their religious powers, thus creating vast inequality throughout France, which eventually led to a rebellion against the church, and the eventual destruction of the church within France.
Religion is “the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship.” (Cambridge Dictionary) Many people believe in something else out of the evidential or scientific view, thinking that good things happen because God says so, or that the universe was not made by the Big Bang. Even though is something that was more present in history years ago, a lot of people still believe and practise a religion. According to Stephen Juan there are about 4,300 religions in the world. About a 75 per cent of the population of the world practises a religion and the two religions most widely spread are the Christianity and the Islam. (2006) They can be divided in believers, adherents or not adherents, agnostics and atheists. People who are believers are the ones who have faith in something great beyond and
Lastly, religion shows evidence of absolute truth. All religions of the world give meaning and definition to life. Religion was made from mankind’s desire to want more than existence. Through religion, humans hope to get closer to God by asking for forgiveness and asking challenging questions. God who is the “Creator” becomes the standard for absolute truth.
Pascal’s wager takes the position of a gambler. It says that it is far more logical to believe in God because the odds are in one’s favor. Pascal lays it down on a diagram like so: if one believes in God and lives a good, moral, and Christian life and in the end finds that God exists, that person has hit the jack-pot, if I may, gaining eternal life in the presence of God. At the same time, if the aforementioned person comes to the end of life and finds out that God does not exist, then that person really did not loose all that much. Sure probably missed a few parties, didn’t dr...
In conclusion, it is important to realize that it was not one single factor which was responsible for the spread of Christianity, all these figures came together to give the perfect platform for a new religion to develop, " Never before in the history of the race had conditions been so ready for the adoption of a new faith by the majority of the peoples of so large an area" (K.S Latourette).
And if they are wrong, they lose nothing. Conversely, a person who bets that God does not exist, if that person is right they gain nothing, and if they are wrong, they lose everything. Moreover, if a person bets that God did exist and then lived a moral life, whereby they missed out on the temporary enjoyment of worldly pleasure only to find out God does not exist, that person only lost the finite.
Modern debates over religion, more specifically God, focus primarily on whether or not sufficient evidence exists to either prove or disprove the existence of a God. Disbelievers such as biologist Richard Hawkins tend to point to the indisputable facts of evolution and the abundance of scientific evidence which seem to contradict many aspects of religion. Conversely, believers such as Dr. A. E. Wilder-Smith describe the controversial aspects of science, and how the only possible solution to everything is a supreme being. However, mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal refused to make either type of argument; he believed that it was impossible to determine God’s existence for certainty through reason. Instead, he suggested that rational individuals should wager as though God does indeed exist, because doing so offers these individuals everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Unfortunately, Pascal’s Wager contains numerous fallacies, and in-depth analysis of each one of his arguments proves that Pascal’s Wager is incorrect.
The opening decision would be that if one were to believe God was to exist, the person would have a very fulfilling and religious life. Which the majority would affirm is the most valuable way to live. In addition to that life style, one would be rewarded with the promise of eternal life in heaven along with infinite bliss. The second element to Pascal’s wager would also demonstrate the person who believes in God. However this decision has the result that God does not exist. The individual may not have the same reward of eternal life. However they would still have the same fulfilling and religious life. In his wager, Pascal states that a rational person would surely choose the option to believe in God. Why would someone not prefer the option that would benefit you in the end ev...
The point of view of materialism in the Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence is the seen from inside the mind of child in the story, Paul. “He went off by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for the clue to “luck,” Absorbed, taking n...
Christianity is the world’s most prominent religion, with more than six billion people practicing worldwide. Although Christianity has come to dominate the world of religion, it began as a small and mysterious cult in Ancient Rome. Small, and poorly understood, Christianity soon became an enemy of Rome, marked with persecution, martyrdom, and murder. By the end of the third century CE, tens of thousands of Christians had been arrested and killed for their beliefs.
In the question of faith and reason it is ridiculous to claim that God or any matter of the Divine may be proven by reason. And although I agree with the Bernard of Clairvaux on this one matter I agree for a different reason. He leaves the only answer to be faith. I do not think there is any true way to prove religious matters. Though it may be easy at times to disprove them with the use of reason, it becomes difficult to do so with faith. It is impossible to use faith and reason in conjunction with eachother. Faith is a belief in something that does not have reason, so therefore if something can be proved with philosophical reasoning there would be no reason to have faith except for in the case where reason does not answer the question. This reasoning equation, in the end, does not add up.
When looking at Pascal’s arguments that emerge in Pensees; the history, ideas, and people that influenced Pascal must be examined. Many of Pascal’s arguments involve the unity of both religion and science. This can be very controversial at a time where an absolute monarch challenges and tries to destroy other faith practices. Along with introducing scientific ideas others may misinterpret as trying to disprove God’s existence. Pascal was heavily influenced by the Christian church and was a firm believer in God. In fact, Pascal’s discoveries and experiments only solidify his faith even more. Pensees is Pascal’s thoughts on God and some other subjects that tie philosophy and the nature of man.