Pascal s wager is an argument in apologetic philosophy devised by the seventeenthcentury french philosopher, mathematician and physicist blaise pascal 162362. You have two things to lose, the true and the good. If god existed, and the person believed in god, he would be rewarded with happiness forever. Pascals claim that if you lose, you lose nothing is some indication that he thought that belief dominated non belief. He said that it is not possible to prove or disprove that god exists. Pascals wager about god internet encyclopedia of philosophy. If the chances of god existing are one in ten million, then the idea that it is reasonable to give up so many of lifes greatest joys on such a slim likelihood is hard to sustain. Subtracting the utility of not paying from that of paying we havep1 p21 p4w but since. Full text of pascals wager see other formats stop early journal content on jstor, free to anyone in the world this article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in the world by jstor. Pascal s wager is thus designed to appeal to people of all religious backgrounds, or none at all. In his pensees 165758, pascal posed the following argument to show that belief in the christian religion is rational. In this writers opinion, it has significant weaknesses. This document has been generated from xsl extensible stylesheet language source with renderx xep formatter, version 3. Jan 02, 2020 in conclusion, pascals wager, while an interesting piece of philosophical thought, should have no place in a christians evangelistic and apologetic repertoire.
Pascals wager in the context of the pensees updated 1022015 alexander jech department of philosophy university of notre dame i. It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that god exists or that he does not. The conduct of god, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by. If the christian god does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. Known as the early journal content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other. Fourth and finally, as an apologeticevangelistic tool which is what the wager was intended to be, it seems focused on a riskreward outlook, which is not consistent to a true saving faith relationship in christ. Two versions of pascal s wager will be earmarked for close examination. Believing is always superior to not believing because the outcome is always dominant more beneficial to you. Pascals wager debunked pascal states there are two options. Introduction pascals wager cambridge university press. But despite its initial appeal, the wager seems to fail on logical grounds.
A live hypothesis is a proposition whose adoption would not. Its argument is rooted in what has subsequently become known as game theory. Jun, 2015 the pascals wager is a very popular argument among theists and deists as well. For that week, i was able to view any pdfs in my files and loved using the system. Aquinas would have us reason to a belief in gods existence on the way to the articles of faith. Against pascals wager against pascals wager brandon. To view the pdf, you must log in or become a member. In his famous wager, blaise pascal 162362 offers the reader an argument that it is rational to strive to believe in god. Pascals wager, discussed in his pensees, has provoked discussion and strong views ever since its. However, it s possible any theory of god could include the condition god loves unbelievers therefore, anyone who believed in god as a result of the wager would go to hell, whereas all the atheists. Pascals wager is the name of an argument in favor of belief in god presented by blaise pascal. Rota considers pascal s wager and the roles of uncertainty, evidence and faith in making a commitment to god. As terence penelhum has noted, many philosophers feel it is somehow a professional obligation not to accept it. Pascals wager is the name given to an argument due to blaise.
Hence it comes that, if there are as many risks on one side as on the other, the course is to play even. This pdf version matches the latest version of this entry. Perhaps god prefers the abstinent to those who whore around with some denomination he. This means, first, that they should hope and therefore desire that they might find a higher meaning and value to their existence by making contact with a beneficent power beyond the. To create this article, 11 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Therefore, in no form of pascal s wager can we grant the assumptions that sayers wants. Feb 28, 2016 pascals wager is directed at the condition of not knowing, not actively disbelieving. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy pascal s wager first published sat may 2, 1998.
Sep 28, 2015 i propose to reformulate pascals wager as urging those who doubt gods existence to embrace a doubt of desire rather than a doubt of indifference. Pascal s statement of his wager argument is couched in terms of the theory of probability and the theory of games, and the exposition is unclear and unnecessarily complicated. Blaise pascal was the founder of the pascals wager. Sep 12, 20 in defence of pascals wager pascals wager in. His suggestion is that the personal cost of behaving as if one were a believer is trivially small in any event, so the best way to hedge your bet is to act in that manner. Pascals wager was very important for the time, because it did new things with probability theory. A special area in hell might be reserved for those who go to mass. Become part of the pints with aquinas community by supporting the show on patreon. Pascal started off as a scientist that was a strong believer in the scientific theory. Pascals wager is an argument that asserts that one should believe in god, even if gods existence cannot be proved or disproved through reason blaise pascals original wager was as a fairly short paragraph in pensees amongst several other notes that could be considered wagers. Pascal s wager is an argument in support of religious belief and religious practice taking its name from the seventeenth century polymath blaise pascal.
What pascal overlooked was the hairraising possibility that god might outluther luther. Jul 28, 2014 pascals wager, jordan argued, may be viewed as a kind of last ditch argument for apologists and theism 24. After all, suppose one were to come up with an argument which convinced you that the truth of theism is quite unlikely indeed. Scholars have argued over the validity of pascal s wager for centuries.
If the christian god does exist, the agnostic gains. Although it is a utterly fallacious argument, it is still used for selfsatisfaction. Pascals wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenthcentury french philosopher, mathematician and physicist, blaise pascal 16231662. Then a few days ago, adobe acrobat reader dc stopped working. It is also one of the first tries to use the concept of infinity, and the first use of decision theory. I do not read but love pascal, as the most instructive victim of christianity, murder ed slowly, first physically. It posits that humans bet with their lives that god either exists or does not. Blaise pascal 16231662 offers a pragmatic reason for believing in god. By engaging with themes such as decision theory, the finetuning of the universe, divine hiddenness, the problem of evil, the historicity of the resurrection and the nature of miracles, he probes the many dynamics at work in embracing.
In both cases the faith is based on a wagerthe pascalian wager on the existence of god and the marxist wager on the liberation of humanitythat presupposes risk, the danger of failure and the hope of success. This is a plausible principle, and one which is employed in some versions of pascals wager. This does not excuse a person from at least trying to discover if there is a god or not and who he might be. Pdf on jan 12, 1991, graham oppy and others published on rescher on pascals wager find, read and cite all the research you need on. And then to make people seek him among the philosophers, sceptics, and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them. Pascal s wager, socalled because it was devised by the brilliant catholic philosopher blaise pascal 16231662, is an apologetics method in the form of a wager aimed at getting atheists and agnostics to consider the possibility that god exists and that there is a heaven and hell. However, energy transitions are gradual rather than sudden, defying the expectations of. Suppose someone you loved lay dying, and the doctor offered to try a new miracle drug that he could not guarantee but that would have a 5050 chance of saving your beloveds life. It posits that humans bet with their lives that god either exists or does not pascal argues that a rational person should live as though god exists and seek to believe in god. Pascal s project has two features which justify devoting a thesis to it. French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and christian philosopher. With the wager, pascal attempted to provide a compelling reason to believe in god based upon happiness and possible outcomes.
How to choose a moral course of action if one is agnostic. The flaws of pascals wager an argument often used by religious people is that they have nothing to lose by believing in god and that atheists are risking eternity in hell for no gain. If god does exist and you choose to believe in god, then your reward is very high eternal life in heaven. May 23, 2016 today we conclude our unit on philosophy of religion and hank gets a little help from indiana jones to explain religious pragmatism and pascals wager, fideism, and kierkegaards leap to faith. He was a child prodegy that was taught by his father. Ppt pascals wager powerpoint presentation free to view. Depending on the amount of your monthly gift, youll receive some pretty awesome gifts, from video reflections to an awesome pints with aquinas beer stein to oneonone conversations with matt. Religious conversion, selfdeception, and pascals wager. In defence of pascals wager just another philosopher. Oct 17, 2006 this essentially is what has become known as pascals wager, a barebones approach to challenging the folly of unbelief. Pascals wager is an argument for the existence of god developed by 17th century mathematician and philosopher blaise pascal. Course notes blaise pascal, the wager the electric agora.
In that case, pascals wager provides a rational reason to continue to believe in god. Pascal s wager was originally put forth by blaise pascal, a 17 th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal s wager argues that belief makes more sense than disbelief when the worst outcome is a total loss. The name is somewhat misleading, for in a single section of his pensees, pascal apparently presents at least three such arguments, each of which might be called a wager it is only the final of these that is traditionally referred to as pascal. So we may well know that there is a god without knowing what he is. As a believer, if youre right you go to heaven and if youre wrong its no big deal. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. Pascals wager or pascal s gambit the name for an idea that blaise pascal had. Pascal s wager does not define which god to believe in since in many religions believing in a different god brings a punishing judgment. In pascals wager, jordan defends a version of pascal s famous argument 1670 that it is rational to believe, or to try to induce belief, in god. Warren buffet, climate change and pascals wager watts up. The name is somewhat misleading, for in a single section of his pensees, pascal apparently presents at least three such arguments, each of which might be called a wagerit is only the final of. Or god might punish those whose faith is prompted by prudence. Therefore pascal s wager is invalid as an argument.
Explain whether you consider pascals wager a proof of gods exis tence or not. If you had no idea of the odds of this particular lotto, you wouldnt assume that the odds are exactly 5050. It was important for other philosophers who developed the ideas of pragmatism and voluntarism. Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though god exists and seek to believe. It s difficult to ignore the possibility that pascal took the wager quite seriously. Pascal extended a reason to believe in god, even though other people had beliefs that god is not real and his existence is not inconceivable.
It only calculates with two options when there are, in fact, at least four alternatives. A primary reason for this is because a number of challenging objections have been raised to the wager, including the many gods objection and the mixed strategy objection. His deep mysticism and religious commitment is reflective of christian existentialism, and pascal s devotional writing is often compared to kierkegaards. Readers who enjoy these types of discussion will find much to appreciate in this ageold debate. Pascal pointed out that the most important things in life cannot be known with certainty. Unlike more traditional arguments for the existence of god, pascal s wager is a pragmatic argument, concluding not that god exists but that one should wager for god. Pascals wager or pascal s gambit is the name for an idea that blaise pascal had.
Pascal s wager is directed at the condition of not knowing, not actively disbelieving. You can also read more about the friends of the sep society. Pascal s assertion that one must choose seems reasonable. An epistemic interpretation of the ultimate pragmatic argument mi c h a e l ve l c h i k p iquant, convincing, powerful, and mildly heretical pascal s wager is a philosophers dream. The wager takes on added weight when you consider that pascal himself made a bet and took up an ascetic lifestyle near the end of his life. Pascals wager edited by paul bartha cambridge core. I propose to reformulate pascals wager as urging those who doubt gods existence to embrace a doubt of desire rather than a doubt of indifference. Mar 24, 2017 in this wireless philosophy video, susanna rinard harvard university explains pascal s wager, blaise pascal s famous argument for belief in god.
Pascal was a french philosopher, an inventor, a mathematician, a scientist and a theologian. But, the wager only works in the way pascal wants it to, if the chances of gods existence is an even split. A study of practical reasoning in philosophical theology, nicholas rescher aims to show that, contrary to received philosophical opinion, pascal s wager argument is the vehicle of a fruitful and valuable insightone which not only represents a milestone in the development of an historically important tradition of thought. The main problem with pascal s wager is that it suffers from the fallacy of bifurcation. Rather than asserting that the probability of gods existence p is high, pascal readily admitted that some deem gods existence to be unlikely perhaps extremely unlikely. A few weeks ago, i installed the latest adobe reader. Philosophical debates about this classic argument have continued until our own times.
Pascals wager is the name given to an argument due to blaise pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in god. The same principle can be applies to pascal s wager. Pascals wager is the most famous part of his collection of notes known as the pensees. He later left the catholic faith to become a philosopher of. Full text of pascal s wager see other formats stop early journal content on jstor, free to anyone in the world this article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in the world by jstor. Pascals wager makes no mention of the necessary preliminary work of the spirit to come to the knowledge of saving faith. Taking pascals wager by michael rota overdrive rakuten. Pascal, who is said to be the father of modern probability, felt that that religion should be approached as a gamble. But as a nonbeliever, if youre right its no big deal and if youre wrong you go to hell. Pascals wager is told entirely in first person from the main characters viewpoint over the course of about eight months.
Pascals wager, practical argument for belief in god formulated by blaise pascal. Most discussions of the wager concentrate on what jordan calls the canonical version, according to which one should cultivate religious belief because of the possibility of an infinite reward which, even if it is discounted by allowing only a. Warren buffet, climate change and pascals wager watts. What about all the other religions, one of which could in the opinion of the unbeliever be true. It was this time that the wager was formulated and it was not published in his lifetime. In doing so, the new adobe acrobat reader dc became my default pdf viewer and worked for about a week. Pascals wager, socalled because it was devised by the brilliant catholic philosopher blaise pascal 16231662, is an apologetics method in the form of a wager aimed at getting atheists and agnostics to consider the possibility that god exists and that there is a heaven and hell. Many think that pascal s wager is a hopeless failure.
Christians are to share and proclaim the gospel of jesus christ, which alone is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes romans 1. The pascals wager was a secondperson communication. If god does exist and you believe, you gain an eternity of happiness and reward. But, if god exists and you dont believe, you lose out on eternity and might even be punished instead. Examining two objections to pascals wager pascals wager has been the subject of protracted philosophical interest since its posthumous appearance over three centuries ago. Pascal s wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenthcentury french philosopher, mathematician and physicist, blaise pascal 16231662. The wager uses the following logic excerpts from pensees, part iii, 233. That is, to say, it is an objection to versions of the wager that argue that its always decision theoretically rational to wager that god exists. Blaise pascal 16231662 is widely regarded as a brilliant mathematician, but he is less wellknown as a deep student of religion and the bible. Pascals wager is an argument posed by the mathematician and physicist blaise pascal to deal with gods existence to help explain here is an illustration. Pascal s claim that if you lose, you lose nothing is some indication that he thought that belief dominated non belief.
The christian god and afterlife, some other god and afterlife, atheism with afterlife, and atheism without afterlife. One version is a favorite of philosophers, and so it might be called the canonical version of pascal s wager. Therefore, pascal s wager is logically invalid if you must already assume its conclusion, e. The following is a creative reformulation of the argument designed to avoid some of the objections which have been or might be raised against the original. Pascal bases this on the fact that we can never know the probability.
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