Pascal Wager Essay

Submitted By Victoria-Watkins
Words: 854
Pages: 4
Open Document
Pascal’s Wager: To Believe or Not to Believe?

The mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal is famous, among other reasons, for his wager-argument for God. Pascal’s wager treats belief in God as a choice to believe or to not believe. Either God exists or he does not. By believing that he does exist one receives salvation. However, by believing he does not exist one receives eternal punishment. In other words, by breaking down this wager one is able to perceive what he or she risks by not believing or by believing in God and in turn causes them to evaluate their future in the after-life.

Blaise Pascal was born a child prodigy when it came to education. His father educated him in his own home of Rouen. He became a brilliant mathematician and physicist. Pascal’s earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids and others. He invented the first digital calculator while later creating the foundation of the probability theory. However, one of Pascal’s most known and controversial works is the writing of Pensees. Pensees, meaning thoughts, was the collection of unpublished notes about the truth on the Christian religion. After Pascal’s death the notes were assembled and later published. Within in the Christian framework it was set out in section 233 Pascal’s formulated Wager. The existence of God has been argued upon since years resulting in arguments from many great philosophers, Pascal being one of them. Pascal’s Wager, first proposed in the seventeenth century, describes an argument by him trying to convince one to rationally believe in the existence of God.

Pascal’s Wager brings about many controversial discussions through the idea of the existence of God. With this I have many controversial arguments that agree and may also disagree with the Wager. If one were choosing to believe that God does in fact exist, then one would gain salvation after death and if he or she doesn’t believe then one would lose nothing. However, my first argument against this fact is how God can reward faith. The Wager does not state as to which particular god one should follow. With this, faith can be blind and one may believe in many different religions with different gods. For instance, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and many more are various other religions that exist in this world. A child brought up by a family with a different religion than one of God is going to make the decision of the child to also believe in the same particular religion. This child then has no other choice but to follow the same religion, with this said does this mean if the child is blindly following the wrong faith do they receive eternal punishment after death?

To my second disagreement, I believe a being that possesses perfect goodness would not reward an immoral person for the sake of simple belief because that would mean he is not perfectly good. With this fact being said Pascal’s Wager is therefore invalidated because it contradicts one of the attributes of God, which is that he is “All-Good”. Along with the idea
Show More

Related Documents: Pascal Wager Essay

Ontological Argument And Pascals Wager Essay

of reason alone. Its essentially a hypothesis with no way to test it. Pascal’s wager - The wager is an argument that says its better for one to believe in the existence of God and live their life as a Christian and end up in Heaven as opposed to not living the life of a Christian and ending up living an eternal hell because in the end you lose less if you were to believe then if you were not to. The wager can be shown in four boxes. Box 1 lets say you if you were to believe and there is…

Words 508 - Pages 3

Pascal's Waager Rhetorical Analysis

Pascal’s Wager is an idea created by Blaise Pascal stating that it isn’t possible to prove whether God does or does not really exist. Since this is true, he thinks that it is better to believe that God exists, due to the reward being eternal happiness forever. If one doesn’t believe in His existence, they would be punished to eternal damnation. If God doesn’t exist, but you believed, you lose nothing whereas if you do not believe in a God that doesn’t exist, you gain nothing. His argument says that…

Words 608 - Pages 3

Applying Pascal's Argument To Believe In God

an infinite gain of spending the rest of their life in heaven. Those who do not believe risk the infinite loss of going to hell if God does exist. If God doesn't exist, then non-believers only have a finite gain because they win the wager but that's all they win. Pascal offers a motivating argument to persuade people to believe in God. His conclusion is not that God exists but that a person ought to believe despite the lack of evidence or…

Words 1017 - Pages 5

Pascal Wager's Argument For The Existence Of God

Pascal Wager was a 17th century French philosopher, theologian, and mathematician he is an argument for believe in god was believing Christians says if we do not know that there is a God if He exists or not, but in the possibility that God exists and that there was a Paradise and Hell, the believer does not lose anything will go to heaven and the infidel goes to hell. This simple mathematical calculation we realize that the insured person lucky more luck unbeliever because whether there is a god…

Words 623 - Pages 3

Can We Learn To Believe In God Analysis

To Believe In God”, stated Pascal's famous wager. Its central idea was, to believe in God ensures eternal happiness and to not, means eternal sufferings. Now with this, he devised a solution. Pretending, pretend to believe in God. The reason behind his solution was the idea of habits, if you do what believers do then eventually, in the long run, you would become a believer too, or probably think that you are. the author also stated that even though Pascal agreed that this solution of his is a form…

Words 340 - Pages 2

Essay on george Berkely Idealism

Need? Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) both use logical reasoning to get their argument for why it is logical (or necessary) to believe in God's existence heard. Aquinas uses five different examples to explain the reasoning of beliefs. His five examples are: The argument from change, the argument from causation, the argument from contingency, the argument from degrees of excellence, and the final, argument from harmony. Pascal uses the logic of probability. He states that…

Words 1368 - Pages 6

What was the role of God in the writings of Descartes and Pascal? Essay

What is the role of God in the writings of Descartes and Pascal? Both the idea of God and the existence of God play a major role in the writings of Descartes and Pascal. Both certainly appear to believe in him though they argue the case for his existence very differently and they also give Him a very different sort of role in their works. Whilst Descartes claims that he is certain of the existence of God, using a large part of his Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire la raison, et chercher…

Words 1774 - Pages 8

Sensus Divinitatis and Pascal's Wager Essay

A. Pascal's Wager is saying "if you believe in God and he isn't real, you don't lose anything, and if you don't and he's real, you will suffer in your afterlife". I believe that It is better to believe, learn and worship a religion. Selecting one over the others puts you at square 1, because if you choose incorrectly, then you are no better off than the atheist. However, I also believe that Pascal Wagner is a ridiculous fallacy. It assumes only two positions, when millions of gods could be right…

Words 320 - Pages 2

355 Syllabus 14 15 Essay

PHI 2-355 Philosophy of Religion White 2014/15 202 Prall House Phone: ext. 4239 Home: 319-551-9967 E-Mail: JWHITE Class Time: M-F 12:00-3:00 Office Hours: M, W, F 11-12 Th 3:00-3:30 Required Books: Michael Palmer (ed.), Philosophy of Religion (Fortress, 2011). Lots of other material on Moodle Course Requirements: (1) Daily readings, attendance, class engagement (15%) (2) Two papers each of about 5 pages in length (40%), or one paper and dictionary (3) 3 short-answer quizzes (20%) (4)…

Words 1356 - Pages 6

Anselm Argument For God Research Paper

Research Essay: Anselm and his Argument for God in Proslogion. Christa Lowery PHIL 100 - Introduction to Philosophy Professor Steven Wilkens April 17, 2024 The focal argument of Proslogion, which all other arguments support, is that God is the greatest. There must be a greatest possible being, from which all things come and which sustains their existence. This greatest possible being, most importantly, must exist to be the greatest. If it didn’t exist, then something else, that does exist…

Words 2620 - Pages 11