Most if not all of us are familiar with Pascal's Wager - the premise that there is much to gain and nothing to lose by belief in and worship of god, and nothing to gain from disbelief, and therefore a rational person should believe in god and act accordingly.
There are many conventional arguments against Pascal's wager, and I'll be avoiding them entirely.
Is it true that there is really nothing to lose by worshiping god?
Pascal's one-size-fits-all argument fails when you consider that the concept of "gain/loss" is a personal value judgement and presupposes that certain conditions can be universally considered beneficial. This is not the case.
If one's personal views on ethics, justice and morality are closely aligned with those that are claimed to be held by the god in question, and one finds value in the reward of eternal afterlife in the presence of said god, then one might find the wager convincing.
On the other hand, if one finds god's ethics, justice and morality to be deficient or even malignant, one could not be expected to be thrilled by the prospect of spending an eternity worshiping said god. To such a person, Pascal's Wager is a losing proposition.
There are many conventional arguments against Pascal's wager, and I'll be avoiding them entirely.
Is it true that there is really nothing to lose by worshiping god?
Pascal's one-size-fits-all argument fails when you consider that the concept of "gain/loss" is a personal value judgement and presupposes that certain conditions can be universally considered beneficial. This is not the case.
If one's personal views on ethics, justice and morality are closely aligned with those that are claimed to be held by the god in question, and one finds value in the reward of eternal afterlife in the presence of said god, then one might find the wager convincing.
On the other hand, if one finds god's ethics, justice and morality to be deficient or even malignant, one could not be expected to be thrilled by the prospect of spending an eternity worshiping said god. To such a person, Pascal's Wager is a losing proposition.
