Saturday 9 October 2010
Friday 1 October 2010
Pascal's Wager
Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal that, even though the existence of god cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though god exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
Pascal states, however, that some do not have the ability to believe. In this case, he directs them to live as though they had faith, which may lead them to belief. The Wager was set out in note 233 of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatise on Christian apologetics.
Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking as it had charted new territory in probability theory, was one of the first attempts to make use of the concept of infinity, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated the future philosophies of pragmatism and voluntarism
Richard Dawkins suggests that instead of the deity Pascal assumed, god might reward honest attempted reasoning and punish blind or feigned faith.[20]
Richard Carrier expands this argument as such:
Suppose there is a god who is watching us and choosing which souls of the deceased to bring to heaven, and this god really does want only the morally good to populate heaven. He will probably select from only those who made a significant and responsible effort to discover the truth. For all others are untrustworthy, being cognitively or morally inferior, or both. They will also be less likely ever to discover and commit to true beliefs about right and wrong. That is, if they have a significant and trustworthy concern for doing right and avoiding wrong, it follows necessarily that they must have a significant and trustworthy concern for knowing right and wrong. Since this knowledge requires knowledge about many fundamental facts of the universe (such as whether there is a god), it follows necessarily that such people must have a significant and trustworthy concern for always seeking out, testing, and confirming that their beliefs about such things are probably correct. Therefore, only such people can be sufficiently moral and trustworthy to deserve a place in heaven — unless god wishes to fill heaven with the morally lazy, irresponsible, or untrustworthy
Pascal states, however, that some do not have the ability to believe. In this case, he directs them to live as though they had faith, which may lead them to belief. The Wager was set out in note 233 of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatise on Christian apologetics.
Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking as it had charted new territory in probability theory, was one of the first attempts to make use of the concept of infinity, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated the future philosophies of pragmatism and voluntarism
Richard Dawkins suggests that instead of the deity Pascal assumed, god might reward honest attempted reasoning and punish blind or feigned faith.[20]
Richard Carrier expands this argument as such:
Suppose there is a god who is watching us and choosing which souls of the deceased to bring to heaven, and this god really does want only the morally good to populate heaven. He will probably select from only those who made a significant and responsible effort to discover the truth. For all others are untrustworthy, being cognitively or morally inferior, or both. They will also be less likely ever to discover and commit to true beliefs about right and wrong. That is, if they have a significant and trustworthy concern for doing right and avoiding wrong, it follows necessarily that they must have a significant and trustworthy concern for knowing right and wrong. Since this knowledge requires knowledge about many fundamental facts of the universe (such as whether there is a god), it follows necessarily that such people must have a significant and trustworthy concern for always seeking out, testing, and confirming that their beliefs about such things are probably correct. Therefore, only such people can be sufficiently moral and trustworthy to deserve a place in heaven — unless god wishes to fill heaven with the morally lazy, irresponsible, or untrustworthy
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Heaven
According to the Bible who goes to Heaven?
Nobody? Everybody? Who knows?
For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same; as one dies so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to the dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast does down to the earth?—Ecclesiastes 3:19
The answer is simple. The people who get to go to heaven are the ones who “get right with God” by beginning a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, understanding how to “get right with God” became unclear as organized religion developed over the centuries. (Removing the various “changes” added by organized religion is one of the primary reasons for the existence of this site.) Although “religious people” have been telling others how to go to heaven for a long time, what they say can be distorted by their opinions. That is why it is vital to go back to the unchanging foundation—the Bible.
Nobody? Everybody? Who knows?
For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same; as one dies so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to the dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast does down to the earth?—Ecclesiastes 3:19
The answer is simple. The people who get to go to heaven are the ones who “get right with God” by beginning a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, understanding how to “get right with God” became unclear as organized religion developed over the centuries. (Removing the various “changes” added by organized religion is one of the primary reasons for the existence of this site.) Although “religious people” have been telling others how to go to heaven for a long time, what they say can be distorted by their opinions. That is why it is vital to go back to the unchanging foundation—the Bible.
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