Title: The Philosophical Gamble: Revisiting Pascal's Wager. Blaise Pascal’s renowned contention, regularly called Pascal’s Wager, indicates that it is more reasonable to believe in God because the potential rewards of belief (eternal salvation) outweigh the potential costs (living a restricted life or facing divine punishment). If it is true that there are gains (eternal salvation) and losses (a restricted life or facing divine punishment), then it seems logical for people to place their faith in something as powerful as God. This thought was propounded by Blaise Pascal, who is famous for many other things besides this one too – he didn’t just invent calculus! What he said has been termed as “Pascal’s wager” where basically what he meant …show more content…
One such criticism, often leveled at, involves oversimplifying religious faith into nothing more than chance or self-interest. With his wagering technique, he supposes that we can treat belief as though it were a calculated risk without taking account of all those things like trust, spirituality etcetera which are involved with having faith in God. This means he fails to recognize deeply held beliefs based on personal encounters shaped by culture concerning what people think about gods or goddesses among other beings from whom they may seek protection. In addition, Pascal’s Wager sets up a false choice between agreeing with God based on one understanding or not believing in God at all. It does this by ignoring all the different religions and beliefs that people have throughout history. The argument assumes that there are only two options: either you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior or else you do not think any god exists which is a very limited view because there are so many other world religions besides Christianity such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam etcetera. This narrow perspective overlooks much of what makes up human religiousness and investigation into …show more content…
In many ways, the ‘rationality’ of the Wager depends on your philosophical outlook, religious values, personal experiences, and so forth. Pascal’s Wager is not the final, decisive word on God’s existence. Even so, it compels us to think a little deeper about the complexities of believing and not believing, suspending judgment and taking a leap of faith, and what it means to be human in the first place. Pascal’s Wager is often read in terms of decision theory, a subfield of philosophy that focuses on rational decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. From the perspective of decision theory, Pascal’s Wager might be regarded as an instance of ‘expected utility theory’, which evaluates possible actions in certain ways that follow the principle: One reason for the success of Pascal’s Wager is that it’s extremely easy to understand. By cloaking the choice of whether or not to believe in God in a wager, Pascal makes his appeal irresistible to a popular audience, all members of which, regardless of where they stand on the philosophical-theological spectrum, believe themselves when they ‘wager’. This simplicity has been part of why Pascal’s Wager has remained popular and influential in religious and secular culture for centuries. Nonetheless, Pascal’s Wager has been attacked on a wide range of grounds, some of which we have already
In order to be considered a non-evidentialist, one must believe that actual evidence is not required for all of our beliefs. Pascal believ...
In Jonathan Swift’s story, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public”, he made a satire to talk about how the poor people in Ireland can’t afford to have children and that they have found a solution to that problem by using a very cold-hearted treatment to the poor people. The story is mainly about finding a reasonable, stress-free, and an inexpensive solution to help the starving children of Ireland become more useful to the wealthier people in the country. The story tells us that the solution is to fatten up all the children from poor families and feed them to Ireland’s land-owners that are very rich. Children from the poor could be sold at one year of age to a meat market (Swift). Swift’s argument in this story is that by the poor people giving up their children to the rich will give them an income that will be very helpful and by doing this it will fight overpopulation and
Our purpose in this life is a question that has been asked countless times and answered in various ways. One of the central rational arguments for the existence of God is the teleological argument. This argument focuses in on how intricately designed aspects of life that could not have just fallen into place on their own, they must have had a creator. One of the central practical arguments for the possible existence of God is Pascal’s Wager. This argument is based on weighing the consequences that result from the gamble of believing in God or not believing in God. These arguments can be viewed as comparable and also as diverse.
On the other hand, you could choose not to believe in God. If there is no God, then you are fine. You can sin all you like, you can allow yourself transgressions and forbidden acts, and the only punishments you will face will be those of this life. If, however, you lived thusly and there is a God, then you face an eternity of torture and unbearable misery. So, Pascal reasoned, one would do best to believe in God and act accordingly. That way, if you're wrong, the worst thing that could happen is that you were more pious and caring then you may have otherwise been. If you do not believe in God and you turn out to be wrong, the risks become terrifying.
The movie, “The Great Debaters” (2007), was both directed and starred by, Denzel Washington who acted as Melvin Tolson, English and Speech Professor of Wiley College. Prior to this film’s production, many were not knowledgeable of Wiley College or its debating team. However, transformation took place when Melvin coached a four (4) member debate team of Wiley College into victory. One of the most memorable event was the moment Wiley College argued their opponent Oklahoma City College in scene two (2) of the film. During this debate, Wiley College was represented by the first female debater ever been on the school’s debating team, Samantha Booke along with her other team members. They argued in support of the moot, “Negro’s should be admitted to State Universities.”
-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.
The reading states that critics have opposes the idea that Sinosauropteryx was a feathered dinosaur and the author provides three reasons of support. However, the professor explains that critics are unconvincing and refutes each of the authors' reasons.
Pascal’s Wager was a major strength of his theory on God and Religion. The argument made in Pascal’s Wager is an example of apologetic philosophy. It was written and published in Pensées by the 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal’s Wager claims that all humans must bet their lives on whether God exists. He argues that rational people should seek to believe in God. If God does not exist the loss is minimal, but if God does exist there is an infinite gain, eternity in Heaven. It was a ground-breaking theory because it utilized probability theory and formal decision theory. Pascal’s Wager is applicable both to atheists and theists. While other philosophies may
Pamphlets were often used to spread ideas throughout Ireland in the late 1600s, however, many were discarded and ignored. “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift, uses the pamphlets to his advantage by proposing a ridiculous idea to show how messed up the state of Ireland was. Swift proposed that the babies of all the poor would “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” or in other words, improve Ireland 's economic problems and standard of living (Swift). His main reason for proposing this drastic idea was because women continued to have children they could not provide food or anything for in some cases and Swift’s idea would make the children “beneficial to the public” (Swift). For these reasons, Swift looks at not only the politicians to blame for the poor conditions but the citizens of Ireland as well. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift uses harsh
Of these scholarly articles, Pascal’s Wager: A Critique, by Simon Blackburn, may hold the most weight. Blackburn argues against two critical points of Pascal’s theory: the concepts of metaphysical ignorance and religious pluralism. In Blackburn’s objection from metaphysical ignorance, he argues that a logical person cannot assume that there is an infinite gain or loss for believing or not believing in God, respectively. Pascal assumes a Christian viewpoint of heaven and hell. No human is in the position to declare his or her own destiny after death based on whether or not they believe. For example, God could have motives to punish those who believe in him by subjecting them to eternity in hell and nobody would know until after death. However, a reasonable person can disregard this theory because the prospect of God rewarding those who believe is much more likely than God rewarding those who do not. Also, believing that God would punish someone for believing is still a belief in God, and therefore, if that person truly believes that that is what God wants, then he should be rewarded if he is true. Nevertheless, he still justifiably believes in
Pascal’s Wager is an argument that tries to convince non-theists why they should believe in the existence of the Christian god. Pascal thinks non-theists should believe in God’s existence because if a non-theist is wrong about the existence of God they have much more to lose than if a theist is wrong about the existence of God.
Pascal’s argument “The Wager” says that it is more reasonable to believe in God than to not believe in god. There are many objections to “The Wager” argument, but William G. Lycan and George N. Schlesinger defend Pascal’s argument. This response will give a brief overview of Pascal’s wager and an overview of Lycan and Schlesinger’s argument while it is being evaluated.
...between faith and reason but I think Clifford has a way more logical way of considering faith and belief in God than Pascal. Clifford offers a very sound argument for why it is important not to call pragmatic considerations justification for God, and also and argument for why it is so important that we have really good evidence when making justifications. I believe that both reasoning, and faith are required to believe in anything and that the reasoning side of the equation needs to be diligently and mindfully considered. I also believe that to find empirical evidence of God may be impossible, so it’s important that faith and belief are based on strong reasoning even without empirical evidence. Believing in something because it’s comforting in the will only cause a great deal of people to blindly follow and never ask questions leading to a very misguided society.
...ople to come back to Church and to believe in God but not out of self-interest. In order for the argument to accomplish this it must first be rewritten. It needs to define its terms (i.e. the use of the word God), it should not be based on chance or self-interest but rather to make known to the person that it is quite possible that God exists, and finally, it should include a fifth outcome where a person believes in God out of self-interest and is eternally damned anyway for lack of faith, love and for selfishness. Pascal’s Wager calls to mind a famous quote by Albert Camus: “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.” Until Pascal’s argument is solid and fully developed, one should not adopt the argument as a mean for conversion, evangelization or lifestyle.
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.