Pascal's Wager Argument Analysis

The 17th-century French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is most likely best known in the school of theology for his wager argument known as Pascal’s Wager. His contributions to areas outside of theology have secured him as a brilliant mind in history. At the age of sixteen, Pascal wrote a treatise that became very popular throughout Europe on conic sections (Wood, 1:35). However, his influence in theology is the emphasis here. This essay will focus first on understanding Pascal’s religious views as a Jansenist. Second, on apprehending his wager and third, explaining that the wager is not a theistic proof.

As Martin Luther nailed his theses to the Church door in Wittenberg, he sparked the Protestant Reformation

In this book, he took several positions, including that supernatural grace enables every good work (Gelpi, 380). In other words, he emphasized that without God’s grace, humans cannot want to be saved, to have faith, to be morally good (Wood, 8:25). After his conversion, Pascal became a Jansenist.

Pascal had some kind of a deep felt conversion on November 23, 1654, and he wrote that he had become certain of God, specifically the God of Abraham and of Jesus Christ and not the god of philosophy and scholarship (Beeck, 95). From that time on, he devoted himself to theology and having joined the Jansenists, wrote strongly against the Jesuits (Gonzalez, 168). These writings are known as the Provincial Letters. Although they are considered biased regarding the theological debate, they are also recognized and still studied today in French literature as an example of persuasive arguing (Wood, 9:16).

Pascal began writing works on Christian apologetics but died before he completed this work (Hastings, Mason and Pyper, 777). His writings were published in 1670 and called Pensées, but because Pascal did not order his writings, different copies number the sections differently. Pascal’s wager is in the section that begins, “Infinite – nothing. – Our soul is cast into a body…” (Pascal, Kindle Location 1311). He

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. Whereas, if a person bets that God did not exist and then lived an immoral life, indulging in temporary pleasures only to find out that God does exist, that person has lost the