Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 7, 2015 at 2:34 pm
(This post was last modified: April 7, 2015 at 3:35 pm by datc.)
Often in our lives we "evenly rotate," mindlessly taking unto ourselves the monotonous drudgery of "what is." We are slaves to the "what is." Why do you work? So you can eat. Why do you eat? So you can work. It's wake up, go to work, come home, sleep, ...
Yet sometimes we or others create something new and beautiful that has not yet been experienced and enjoyed. This beauty is a transcendence of what is and thankfully, especially under capitalism, it happens many times for each person every day. For example, we constantly encounter new and wonderful products created by entrepreneurs and put on the market. One learns something new, or he sees a new work of art, or he increases in virtue. The fact of endless improvement, such as economic progress, is inherent in all human affairs. There is perpetual transcendence of the boring status quo into something novel, interesting, zesty, and as yet untasted. Every day we are jarred out of our complacent even rotation.
Now we come upon death. It seems like an ultimate "what is," an ultimate constraint. On the one hand, there is a clear realization that with all our power and technology, we are unable to avoid death. Even the universe will die, too. On the other hand, the reality of never-ending self- and world-improvement, both for humanity and the individual, suggests that perhaps there is something that can help us overcome death. This is an intuition, a hope, a glimmer of light in the darkness.
But how shall man overcome death? At the very least, by soul-making himself during this life into the kind of person for whom eternal life will be a joy and not at all a burden.
Attend that there are three realities in this life: of combat, of victory, and of defeat. We humans, both as a race and as individuals have surmounted and overcome numerous obstacles and constraints. But we also failed many times. Thus, it seems that some people live such unhappy lives that they would be absolutely devastated if their eternal lives were even somewhat close to the lives they live here. Suppose that if they choose to die, their souls are annihilated, and they disappear into nothingness.
We extrapolate that some people fail at overcoming death, and other people succeed. Those who fail at becoming the sort of people who will always enjoy eternal life succeed, and those who choose death evaporate, and that's that. For example, being morally good is crucial for happiness, and perhaps the environment one will inhabit in the next life will be a reflection of his inner virtues. Or, if one has crafted himself into a steadfast seeker of his happiness in his life, he will find it in the next. If the next life is worse than this life, then any steps I take to prepare myself for it will be in vain. There is no way I'll voluntarily suffer an eternity of misery. I will end up desiring to die in that next life, and the problems are again upon us.
The unseen and unknown X that helps us to overcome death is called God.
This God must be judged as extremely creative of a considerable and in fact infinite amount of good.
We honor our human creative geniuses, such as by giving them Nobel prizes; why also not honor whatever it is that helps us transcend death, in doing so showing itself to be extremely creative, as well as perhaps benevolent (as in willing good to us), powerful to accomplish a feat like this, intelligent as in knowing how to preserve souls from corrupting, etc.?
Indeed, these are inchoate feelings, signs and portents, pagan dreams. But they may be enough.
Now let's call Shatheism or Sha the doctrine that there is no eternal life after death, and Shbelief or Shb, that there is. If one is unsure whether to pick Sha and Shb, one should consider that if Sha is true, he loses little in preparing himself for "heaven" (at the most, since under Sha, a good man becomes equal to an evil man and to zero in death, he may lose some ephemeral advantages of being evil); if Shb is true, his preparations will ensure that he will enjoy himself to the fullest in that next life. It seems that betting on Shb makes sense.
Yet sometimes we or others create something new and beautiful that has not yet been experienced and enjoyed. This beauty is a transcendence of what is and thankfully, especially under capitalism, it happens many times for each person every day. For example, we constantly encounter new and wonderful products created by entrepreneurs and put on the market. One learns something new, or he sees a new work of art, or he increases in virtue. The fact of endless improvement, such as economic progress, is inherent in all human affairs. There is perpetual transcendence of the boring status quo into something novel, interesting, zesty, and as yet untasted. Every day we are jarred out of our complacent even rotation.
Now we come upon death. It seems like an ultimate "what is," an ultimate constraint. On the one hand, there is a clear realization that with all our power and technology, we are unable to avoid death. Even the universe will die, too. On the other hand, the reality of never-ending self- and world-improvement, both for humanity and the individual, suggests that perhaps there is something that can help us overcome death. This is an intuition, a hope, a glimmer of light in the darkness.
But how shall man overcome death? At the very least, by soul-making himself during this life into the kind of person for whom eternal life will be a joy and not at all a burden.
Attend that there are three realities in this life: of combat, of victory, and of defeat. We humans, both as a race and as individuals have surmounted and overcome numerous obstacles and constraints. But we also failed many times. Thus, it seems that some people live such unhappy lives that they would be absolutely devastated if their eternal lives were even somewhat close to the lives they live here. Suppose that if they choose to die, their souls are annihilated, and they disappear into nothingness.
We extrapolate that some people fail at overcoming death, and other people succeed. Those who fail at becoming the sort of people who will always enjoy eternal life succeed, and those who choose death evaporate, and that's that. For example, being morally good is crucial for happiness, and perhaps the environment one will inhabit in the next life will be a reflection of his inner virtues. Or, if one has crafted himself into a steadfast seeker of his happiness in his life, he will find it in the next. If the next life is worse than this life, then any steps I take to prepare myself for it will be in vain. There is no way I'll voluntarily suffer an eternity of misery. I will end up desiring to die in that next life, and the problems are again upon us.
The unseen and unknown X that helps us to overcome death is called God.
This God must be judged as extremely creative of a considerable and in fact infinite amount of good.
We honor our human creative geniuses, such as by giving them Nobel prizes; why also not honor whatever it is that helps us transcend death, in doing so showing itself to be extremely creative, as well as perhaps benevolent (as in willing good to us), powerful to accomplish a feat like this, intelligent as in knowing how to preserve souls from corrupting, etc.?
Indeed, these are inchoate feelings, signs and portents, pagan dreams. But they may be enough.
Now let's call Shatheism or Sha the doctrine that there is no eternal life after death, and Shbelief or Shb, that there is. If one is unsure whether to pick Sha and Shb, one should consider that if Sha is true, he loses little in preparing himself for "heaven" (at the most, since under Sha, a good man becomes equal to an evil man and to zero in death, he may lose some ephemeral advantages of being evil); if Shb is true, his preparations will ensure that he will enjoy himself to the fullest in that next life. It seems that betting on Shb makes sense.
