Would You Wager On God?

Yes, religion is a very sensitive topic to discuss and most of the time people end up having arguments. Anyway, back to the "it's better to wager on God than to not" topic. I personally believe that in order for a person to be saved, he/she must believe and love God. I think wagering is more like a playing-safe decision or action. Believing with loving and having faith in God is the best option for all us. Wagering does not include loving God right? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Pascal is trying to tell us that it's better for us to believe than not to believe for the sole purpose of safety and redemption. With that kind of reasoning, it looks like we human beings are trying to fool God by acting that we believe in Him just to be safe.

This is certainly an interesting post and it does make me think. The basis of my response is that I am a Christian and my faith is defined by God's word, the Bible. Your post reminds me that I have heard of unbelievers (those who do not believe in God) being asked the question, "What if you are wrong?". People want to have the freedom to believe as they choose, and on the human level, that freedom is the most important thing. But will it be worth it, if they are wrong? Who has the last say with respect to our lives or our afterlife? If God is true to His word, then there are huge issues that need to be addressed, like sin, judgment, and eternity. If God is true, it will not be adequate for me to make up my own interpretation of these big issues. I think the analogy of placing a wager, but a wager in which you are risking all, is pretty accurate. The risking all is simply a trusting faith in God. Suppose I wager that God is who He says He is, and in the end I find out that I was wrong? What is the harm done? The harm if there is any, will be found in how I lived my life on earth, but how will it impact my eternity? You then point out correctly that God's plan is to have a relationship with us, and if we think we can wager to reap the benefits, and yet live as if we do not know God, we are sadly mistaken. God requires that His people know, believe, love, trust and obey Him. Better yet, God works in our hearts to give us the ability to do all those things, but it does involve us intertwining our lives with God. So, the idea of a shallow wager is not a very good picture of the God-man relationship. This is just my perspective on the discussion, and hopefully not offensive to anyone.

Pascal wager doesn't really work if you think about it. First which god is the correct god? If you believe in all the different types of gods then God can be mad at you for believing in all the other gods. If you do believe in god then God could say you really don't believe in him and try to manipulate him. God can send you to hell whether you believe in him or not. If God is all powerful then god is not bound by any rules and can send you to hell no matter what you do or don't do. If God send you to hell what can you do about it? Its not like you can appeal to a higher authority. If God were to let all believers in only because they believe in him then you can do whatever you want even if it makes other people mad and sad and still go to heaven.

Blaise Pacal was a good with numbers, hence the reasoning behind his theory.. Blaise Pascal (French pronunciation: [bl?z paskal]; June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662), was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a Tax Collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method. In 1642, while still a teenager, he started some pioneering work on calculating machines, and after three years of effort and 50 prototypes[1] he invented the mechanical calculator.[2][3] He built twenty of these machines (called the Pascaline) in the following ten years.[4] Pascal was a mathematician of the first order. He helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. His results caused many disputes before being accepted. Betting on religion never works, as it can never be proved right or wrong. Everyone has the right to be correct or wrong....

I think the problem with Pascal's reasoning is that he is assuming that everyone who DOES wager on a god is wagering on the SAME god. Everyone has different beliefs so if I say yes that I will wager it all on my gods, they are not the same as Pascal's god. Just like a Muslim wagering it all on Allah wouldn't be the same as a Jewish person wagering their beliefs on their god. I just have a problem believing that any god who is repeatedly described as being loving, caring, forgiving etc. would send someone to be tortured for all eternity because they did not believe in them or praise them. That seems really childish and immature to me, sorry.

I guess I can't believe the philosophy that believe or not. It is more if you believe in God than you also have to believe in the Devil. With that knowledge alone you are shown the path of both positive and negative thought. How you follow that path is up to you. God gave us free will to decide for ourselves. If this leads you to going to church every week or doing other "chores" to show God you love him or leads you doing good works for others, they are both going in the right direction.

iypsyjilia hi I agree Christianity if followed well will make us better people for sure. I would not wager on God as I do believe in him and try to live a good live and be kind and helpful to everyone, Placing wagers on God is sacrilegious.. to me.He is to be worshiped not made fun of.