Psalm 53:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Long
ago, I heard about Pascal’s wager. Have you heard of this brilliant reasoning?
The world-wide web tells us that Pascal's Wager is an argument in apologetic philosophy
devised by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and
physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–62). It
posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or
not. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming an
infinite gain or loss associated with belief or unbelief in said God (as
represented by an eternity in heaven or hell), a rational person should live as
though God exists
and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will
have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.). Pascal formulated the
wager within a Christian framework. The wager was set out in
section 233 of Pascal's posthumously published Pensées ("Thoughts").
The wager is described in Pensées this
way: If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having
neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of
knowing either what He is or if He is ... "God is, or He is not." But
to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an
infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of
this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?
According to reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according
to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions. Do not, then, reprove
for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it.
"No, but I blame them for having made, not this choice, but a choice; for
again both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault,
they are both in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all."
Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Yes;
but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose
then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least.
You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake,
your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature
has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in
choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is
one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in
wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain
all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.
"That
is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much." Let us
see. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain
two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives
to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing),
and you would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your
life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But
there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were an
infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be
right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being obliged to
play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an
infinity of chances there is one for you, if there were an infinity of an
infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity of an infinitely
happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of
loss, and what you stake is finite. What have you got to lose? Would
you wager eternity? By the way, God exists.
In Christ, Brian
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