RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
October 1, 2013 at 2:26 pm
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2013 at 2:28 pm by Mister Agenda.)
(October 1, 2013 at 2:02 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote:(October 1, 2013 at 1:16 pm)Faith No More Wrote: The idea that Pascal's wager involves no risk is absurd.
What's more of a risk than wasting the only life you get based on superstition?
Well you do have a point that in this world the Christian may be wasting his life if he is wrong. But most Christians live fairly good, happy lives so I am not sure it is so bad.
But the possible infinite loss of the atheist and agnostic may not be worth the imagined temporary gain in this life.
Welcome, Saved.
I don't know if there is an official name for this informal fallacy, but I refer to it as 'the argument from high stakes'. I suppose it's a variation of the argument from force (if you don't believe me, you'll be sorry).
It's easy to demonstrate the intuition of falseness: Pascal's Wager not only tells you to worship God to be on the safe side, it tells you which one to worship: the one with the worst hell, because that's the one you most can't afford to be wrong about. Therefore, if you discover a religion with a worse hell than the one you subscribe to, you should believe that one, because your fate will be worse if you don't and it is the correct religion.
Would you find 'our hell is worse than yours' a compelling argument for conversion?
