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Tepheris — Pascal's Wager
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Published: 2012-12-29 23:01:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 3294; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 20
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An illustration of Blaise Pascal's statement why rational people will believe in God, with minor modifications from yours truly.
Since this isn't as self-evident as I thought, here's some clarification:
Pascal's Wager does not go into the odds of... anything. It just points out that atheists get no benefit if their beliefs turn out to be true. If they are wrong, they lose everything. The opposite of someone believing in the existence of God has no real major downside if the atheists are right, and a huge upside if your beliefs are vindicated.
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Comments: 84
Actually, there'd be plenty to lose. Would you like an alphabetized list?
family, who you may have to cut off if you don't think they're "Godly" enough
friends, due to becoming a scripture quoting jackass who constantly lectures them on how to live their lives
health, due to praying for healing instead of going to a doctor
intellectual honesty, from calling harmless things like evolution and homosexuality "evil" even though they bring no harm to anyone
money (Oh, I'm sorry, I mean "love offerings")
mind, from trying to accept all the double-think in the Bible
self respect, from constantly having to apologize for being a flawed human being
time, wasted on praying when you could be acting to solve your own problems
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
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You have a highly inaccurate view of the average Christian.
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On the contrary. I have had much experience with the average Christian. I was raised Christian.
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Uh-huh. Well, I have moved around quite a bit and been a member of several congregations, and not once have I meet a Christian who wouldn't see the doctor and just prayed about it. That sort of a fringe group, so I can understand why you might have a poor opinion of Christians if that is all you are used to.
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Like I said, just the tip of the iceberg.
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Atheists have nothing to lose and everything to gain, yet they act the exact opposite about this.
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Pascal's wager is a stupid argument. If you are going to have faith, it should be because you actually believe it, not because bad things might happen if you do not. I don't think "god" would like it if you were being religious just to get out of hell, it's such a fake way to live. I am not going to deny my real feelings and live a total lie so that I might possibly choose the right religion to follow so that if it ends up being right and faith is the only thing that would get me in (which I feel is complete and utter bullshit in the first place) and end up in this theoretical afterlife. Not worth it.
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True, God probably sighs when He sees people putting on their mask and pretending to follow Him for whatever-their-excuse.
But I see this piece of art differently.... Instead of a reason to *become* saved, maybe it's just a reason you SHOULDN'T ridicule those that are. But I would also like to say that God is very real, and I have felt Him next to me. I have felt Him speaking to me, whispering in my mind.... Nothing I have felt, lying on the floor crying, could have come from anywhere BUT God. He will complete your life, ripping the walls off your self-created rut and flinging you into a reality filled with nothing but Him. I used to be depressed, (and still deal with my bouts every now and then,) but now I pass through this life euphoric, "high on Jesus," as my friends would say. I would suggest any one who is curious to look into Protestantism, which is just Christianity with a fancy name. God is out there, the creator of the Universe, looking to have a personal relationship with YOU. He loves you enough to be slaughtered ruthlessly on a piece of WOOD, and He wants you to Love Him back. Will you answer His call? Or will you be like the rest, passing by on the other side of the road?
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Well I was a Christian for like 16 years or so and I would have to say that I had the opposite experience. After dropping it I felt much more free to live life in a way the way I wanted. The past couple years have been much more rewarding to me than the previous 16.
Also, you seem to know quite a bit about this unknowable being, what he "wants" and how he "feels." How can you know these things? It is not a good sign to me that you speak as if you know these things for a fact when there is no way for you to really know.
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I know that God loves us, because He says so. He says that He loves us, and there's nothing more to do than take what He promises so frequently at face value. He says it, so it's what he feels.
John 3:16- "For God so loved the World that he gave His only son that who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." It's a verse that's used frequently, but it shows how He feels. God, being holy and righteous, cannot lie. Thus, I can say He loves you.
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That is "John" saying it.
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The Bible is a collection of works, inspired BY God. The scriptures may have been physically penned by a human, but there is no reason to believe that the bible's ideas were not written by God.
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How do you know they were inspired by god? I am going to assume somebody told you. Well how do they know? All it is is a 2000 year chain of hearsay.
As for reasons not to believe that the ideas were not written by god, I have plenty. Much of the OT is full of inaccuracies and immoral teachings. I don't think that a god would tell people not to kill people in the Ten Commandments and then go on to tell them all the various instances where they can stone people in Deuteronomy. I see no reason to believe that the bible's ideas were written by a god.
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When you have a triangle named after you, only then do you have my permission to call Pascal's Wager stupid.
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also, I don't care whether you give your permission or not
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I don't see how Pascal's triangle is in any way relevant, address my argument
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This argument only assumes there's two possibilities. The Christian religion being right or not. It doesn't take into account Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, pretty much every religion now and every religion that has existed, and even more so, every religion that could possibly exist.
There's three possibilities, Islam is correct or Atheism is correct. If you're a muslim who believes and Islam is not correct, you die and nothing happens. but if Islam is correct, you win everything.
If you're an atheist and Islam is not correct and you die, nothing happens. But if Islam is correct, you lose everything.
As you can see, it's the exact same argument with a different religion and could be used to justify ANY religion. This is an argument so bad that that more intelligent christians would argue against it. Better luck next time, bub.
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*There's TWO possibilities, Islam is correct or Atheism is correct
A slight wording mistake on my part.
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A couple problems with Pascal's Wager. First, it only takes the Christian religion into consideration. How do you know the Muslims didn't get it right? Or the Hindus? The Norse Vikings? The Greeks? The ancient Egyptians? The Aztecs? Scientologists? Even if Christianity is the "correct" religion, then which denomination? Catholic? Protestant? Orthodox? Jehovah's Witness? Mormon? Luciferian? It doesn't matter if you believe in a god; the question is how do you know you're believing in the right god? Second, it's nothing more than a thinly veiled bribe/threat and doesn't actually present any evidence in support any one god's existence.
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I DID alter Pascal's Wager a bit. In its simplest form it is theism vs. atheism.
If the correct religion is one that says all you need to be is a good person by worldly standards, you would probably be safe by living a Christian life.
With Islam you only get the highest level of reward in heaven if you kill and/or die trying to kill infidels, so I'm not going with that option.
Buddhism and Hinduism have the reincarnation thing going, and they're also work-righteousness religions, so again, you get more bases covered if you follow Christianity.
As for religions of now-gone ethnicities, if they had been the right religion, they'd still be around today.
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Do you honestly think that the deities of these other "Religions" will just "Forgive" your "Blasphemies" against them when your going around saying they're not "Real"?
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Yep, sitting around in the clouds for eternity sounds real enlightening. Maybe I'll get to make friends with a bunch of Haloed bible-thumpers and we can all grovel about how much we love Jesus until the end of eternity. The idea of eternal consciousness in an imaginary place is mind-numbing. Making the best of my limited frame of existence in this universe ( I only get one, you see ) seems to be the most intelligent use of my time.
Also, as an atheist, I'm no longer dictated by the punishment/reward system depicted here. I feel as if I am a happier, more open-minded person because of it.
Admit it, Heaven would be boring as hell
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This very interesting. Though, the way I see it, if the atheistic perspective on life after death is true, then everyone looses regardless of their beliefs. To me, ceasing to exist seems like another form of damnation, but in a different way.
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LOL I love the "the cake is a lie" bit. XD
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"Enlightened" and misguided Voltaire certainly would not like this.
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I really like your visual of this whole concept
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Lol, pascal's wager is a personal favorite of mine!!
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It's an argument through scaring people, and thus my least favorite. So much wrong with it:
* It uses emotions, which are pretty much opposed to rational thought
* You could replace this with any other religion. What if you're wrong, and Islam is correct? That could apply for converting any faith to any other
* It doesn't prove that God exists, just induce feelings of wanting to belief
* If I have to worship because I might be screwed over in the afterlife...well, what does that say about your religion when you use a veiled, passive threat for conversion to a belief espousing universal empathy?
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