Pascal's Wager (for Petronius)

[Wednesday Friday Addams]

Originally Posted by Slap Your Love

Corrected:

Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has potentially everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose.

Not easily disposed of.

Do you read?

[HumanePain]

Originally Posted by KontanKarite

I have more issues with Christianity being a sociopolitical force than an actual religion.

In today's most populous and perverted form, yes, so do I. But originally Jesus tried to provide a way to save individuals.

[Drake Dun]

Yeah, I'm scratching my head as to how that was a correction. What he was probably after was the point that Pascal's wager is not an attempt to prove the truth of Christianity, but an argument for belief in it. If you read what I wrote, though, I made no such mistake.

[Petronius]

To be honest...I think your arguments are not any more convincing than mine.

What can I say. I'm mister play-it-safe. You're right, you can be mister play-it-safe about Islam, or any other religion too. It's because God gave you freedom of choice! LOL

[Godslayer Jillian]

You consider that a convincing argument?
I'm not saying this because I'm an atheist. Even before stopping believing, I knew that Pascal's wager was bullshit.

[Draconysius]

I can't wait for my "Shut the Fuck Up, Jesus" album to be finished and uploaded to Get Dead.

[Slap Your Love]

Originally Posted by Godslayer Jillian

Isn't that exactly what he said, and exactly what he disproved?

No he said Christianity.

[Drake Dun]

Originally Posted by Godslayer Jillian

You consider that a convincing argument?
I'm not saying this because I'm an atheist. Even before stopping believing, I knew that Pascal's wager was bullshit.

Maybe he's talking about some arguments he has that he hasn't voiced here. I really don't see how anyone could fail to see through Pascal's wager after its basic problem is pointed out. It assumes the only options are "Christianity" and "nothing". But we don't get to make that assumption. So the math is bogus. QED. I could point out the other problems with it, but I don't see the point.

[Drake Dun]

Originally Posted by Slap Your Love

No he said Christianity.

Ah. I stand... very slightly corrected. Pascal is talking about a scheme in which the fate of your soul depends upon your belief in some god. He doesn't drone on about Jeebus, but he obviously has Christianity in mind. I suppose you could read it as embracing the entire Abrahamic tradition, or even some other forms of monotheism. Anyway, it's a technicality. The wager can be applied to suicide (which is what kicked off this topic), or accepting Jesus, or eating strawberry ice cream, or whatever. And it's equally idiotic regardless of what you apply it to.

[Drake Dun]

Sometimes gutbusting humor is more effective at making a point than any long winded rant of mine.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=urlTBB...eature=channel