Pascal's Wager

One of the dumbest arguments for the existence of god, yet one of the most popular among believers and it works on people who haven't thought too deep about it too. Hell, it even worked on me for a while. As I previously said, I was raised catholic, barely, but still I had a belief in god and yes, even the jesus character that people seem to like so damn much. Like pretty much all christian cults (they're all cults in my words by the way), I never thought about god more than jesus, I was so confused at whether or not it was the same guy anyway or his father or if they shared a condo somewhere in Florida.

Now, Pascal's Wager is this neat little thing that makes the most sense to a believer. It's about the only thing that kept me believing in jesus even after I had pretty much confirmed that my doubts about the religion were true. Blaise Pascal, a french philosopher from the 17^th century, proposed that believing in god made the most sense since it's a win-win situation. How the hell did he get to that conclusion? I don't know, I never said he was a competent philosopher. Also, he had a near-death experience a few years before writing his "Wager" in which he had a vision from no other than the christian god. (It reminds me I have to explain why near-death experiences are meaningless at some point in the future.)

The win-win situation he's talking about is that if you live your life according to god's principles (which about no one comes close to achieving anyway), you have everything to win and it's not like you're losing something in doing that. On the other hand, not believing in god if he turns out to be true is a pretty poor decision when you think about it with not only nothing to gain, but a hell of a lot to lose. Of course, all of this assumes in Pascal's case that it's the christian god that's real, that the bible tells the truth about him and that burning in hell is an actual possibility for not believing in jesus.

So we live in 2010 now and it should be pretty obvious to anyone that it would be more surprising than anything if the christian turned out to be true (or just about any god actually), but it isn't. Now I'll start by assuming that yes, jesus is real and I obviously don't believe in him, so yeah I'm destined to burn in hell after my death somewhat. All you christians are laughing right now, aren't you? We can't just talk about the "christian belief" anymore though, so are you a true christian? Of course you are! So what are you? Catholic, protestant, mormon, jehovah's witness, moonie? What's a true christian anyway, because you know that not only do you have to believe in jesus, but if you choose the wrong branch, some members do think you go to hell. Even members from the same branch might think you go to hell, ask a fundamentalist and you'll see. Truly everybody thinks they're going to heaven, everybody and their loved ones that is, but that certainty is lost for anyone else in their eyes.

Pascal's Wager is a scary game when you think about it, because each religion and subdivision is most of the time mutually exclusive. Maybe South Park was right when they jokingly said the mormons were right, it means all of you other types of christians would be wrong. Anyway, one thing is certain, no matter who wins, most of the planet is wrong. Now, just for a second, let's say that the god depicted in the qur'an is the right one. I know that to be respectful, christians will sometimes say things such as judeo-christian beliefs, also including Allah when they truly want to look good on tv. Even though it's debatable, yes the god of muslim is supposed to be the same one the jews and christians worship. But unless you're a really nice christian I guess, you think the muslim is wrong for not believing in jesus and he will go to hell. Same thing for the muslims who think that if you don't live your life according to the principles of the qur'an (which you don't if you're not a muslim), you're going to jahannam, their particular version of hell. Now it's an even scarier game, because you could be wrong if you choose the wrong branch of christianity, but also if you choose christianity over islam or vice-versa.

You do know there are even more religions than that and the most popular ones have their own versions of hell. They often have the decency of being nicer though, such as hinduism where you stand trial and are given the appropriate punishment (which is truly horrible, but not eternal), but still being the true believer in each particular religion is supposed to have a reward at the end. Here's a nice one for you, what if god put all these false religions on the planet to see who would be smart enough to avoid them. After all, nobody wants to spend eternity with a blind believer. That would be incredibly annoying for the next 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 years and still counting. Maybe the skeptics and atheists are rewarded while the believers are obliterated of something like that. Of course, I'm not truly enjoying this fantasy, it was just to piss you off believers and to show you how dumb Pascal's Wagers truly is. I don't see why I should enjoy some infinite reward and I don't see why even Hitler should still be burning in hell even in a million years from now for what he did, and we all know it was very wrong. (By the way, not that I like pointing it out, but Hitler was a christian. Of course, I'm not dumb enough to use it as an argument against christians, I don't need that and most of the time they just say he wasn't a true christian. I'm just saying it so that nobody says he was an atheist as they always do.)

So in my scenario, all believers were losers, which is the first step in pointing out how dumb Pascal was when he made his suggestion. But did he say anything true at all? No! As I said, he was suggesting that for the christian god, based on the same validity of proof as any other god, blind faith (a pleonasm). So only if his god is true did he tell the truth. Now let's evaluate this win-win situations. Let's assume for a moment there truly is no god, not even the atheist version I just invented for fun. You die in a natural world where your brain (which contained everything that was your personnality, or just "you") begins to rot until nothing is left. No electricity in your body, you just stopped working. Kinda like you think a rock has no soul, the rotting body left behind is just flesh. Now let's say you were a christian, though it works with any faith.

If you were a strong believer in christianity your whole life. You might have a profound hate for homosexuals, which means you're just an evil moron on that point if there's no god. You also might think that sex itself is a sin if you're enjoying it, some people struggle with that especially during their adolescence. There are always those who practice self-mutilation to punish themselves for their sins, but I won't count those because they're quite rare. I think the most damage is done emotionnally and psychologically. Some branches of christianity are also against condoms, causing higher teen pregnancy. If all that shit about god is not real, what do you look like right now? You're not winning anything, you're just not enjoying your life as it is to the fullest.

To close this, here is a brilliant comment apparently made by Marcus Aurelius (I'm not certain): "Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but...will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."