Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit; I've heard it both ways) refers to a probability game featuring religion. Basically, God may or may not exist, and a person may or may not believe. If the person believes and God exists, they go to heaven (Win). If the person believes and God does not exist, they cease to be (Neutral). If the person believes and God does not exist, they cease to be (Neutral). If the person does not believe and God exists, they go to Hell (Lose). It fails because of its postulates - it assumes one Christian big-G-God of a specific denomination, it assumes no impact on living life in its value calculations, it assumes non-zero probability of God existing (continuous probabilities, at any given point, are probability 0), and it assumes belief based on this is valid. Or, in other words, it goes boom real good.
Originally Posted by Mistral
Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit; I've heard it both ways) refers to a probability game featuring religion. Basically, God may or may not exist, and a person may or may not believe. If the person believes and God exists, they go to heaven (Win). If the person believes and God does not exist, they cease to be (Neutral). If the person believes and God does not exist, they cease to be (Neutral). If the person does not believe and God exists, they go to Hell (Lose). It fails because of its postulates - it assumes one Christian big-G-God of a specific denomination, it assumes no impact on living life in its value calculations, it assumes non-zero probability of God existing (continuous probabilities, at any given point, are probability 0), and it assumes belief based on this is valid. Or, in other words, it goes boom real good.
