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Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 1:05 am
(This post was last modified: February 24, 2014 at 1:06 am by Psychonaut.)
greetings forum,
I can't help but wonder if old man Blaise just stuck his fingers in his ears and sung loudly whenever a strong argument was put against his wager. Did he ponder that there is a probability of him being completely wrong and there might be a god who will punish him for everything that he believed in?
A god completely different to his dearly held christian beliefs? there is also a probability of a god who would punish people for arbitrary things. I don't see the utility of the argument in light of the fact there are potentially an infinite number (or at least a ridiculously large number) of probable modes of action a possible deity could take.
Sorry if this is more to do with philosophy, I posted it here because it seemed relevant. All of your thoughts will be appreciated.
cheers
edit: Sorry if posting this topic is beating a dead horse,
I haven't read other views on the forum.
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 1:17 am
This may be wildly inaccurate but I heard somewhere that his infamous wager might have been a parody of religious arguments, in a similar way that Schrödinger's cat was intended to show the 'absurdity' of quantum mechanics (at least as it pertains to the macro world).
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 1:34 am
lol, I do hope that is the case, from what I've read it seems like he would've been a bright guy.
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 1:59 am
Then again, he was a catholic so dumb comes naturally.
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 2:43 am
There's an underlying assumption that belief is a choice. I can't believe in something against all that I know.
P4K
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 4:41 am
And yet Pascal's Wager still has many fans. (my brother recently posted on Facebook an article on it by Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft.. who still thinks it is somehow a powerful or even interesting argument).
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 5:50 am
(February 24, 2014 at 1:59 am)Minimalist Wrote: Then again, he was a catholic so dumb comes naturally.
Pascal was a genius of the first order. To imply that his off-again-on-again Catholicism made 'dumb' his natural state displays a stunning ignorance of his contributions to mathematics and physics.
Yes, his Wager his a hideously flawed argument, filled with holes you could drive an articulated lorry through, but so what?
Study up on Pascal. He was anything but 'dumb'.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 10:01 am
(February 24, 2014 at 1:05 am)Psychonaut Wrote: I can't help but wonder if old man Blaise just stuck his fingers in his ears and sung loudly whenever a strong argument was put against his wager. No. Like Stimbo says, his 'wager' was most likely meant as a joke. The fact that so many people take it seriously it testament to Poe's law.
Sum ergo sum
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 10:25 am
(February 24, 2014 at 5:50 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: (February 24, 2014 at 1:59 am)Minimalist Wrote: Then again, he was a catholic so dumb comes naturally.
Pascal was a genius of the first order. To imply that his off-again-on-again Catholicism made 'dumb' his natural state displays a stunning ignorance of his contributions to mathematics and physics.
Yes, his Wager his a hideously flawed argument, filled with holes you could drive an articulated lorry through, but so what?
Study up on Pascal. He was anything but 'dumb'.
Boru
Even if his wager was meant as a serious argument, instead of trollbait, it would only be an example of dumb in the religious sense. Pascal was indeed a genius, but how many other bright individuals have had a blindspot where religion - or some other intellectual short-circuit - is concerned? Newton's contributions to physics is incalculable, but he was still a practising alchemist. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, while arguably a literary genius, still wanted desperately to believe in fairies.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Did Pascal really think about it?
February 24, 2014 at 10:28 am
(February 24, 2014 at 10:01 am)Ben Davis Wrote: (February 24, 2014 at 1:05 am)Psychonaut Wrote: I can't help but wonder if old man Blaise just stuck his fingers in his ears and sung loudly whenever a strong argument was put against his wager. No. Like Stimbo says, his 'wager' was most likely meant as a joke. The fact that so many people take it seriously it testament to Poe's law.
Yeah, it does have this tongue-in-cheek vibe, the kind of joke a mathematician would come up with to illustrate a concept.
It could work as an argument against deconversion outreach 
However, in the eyes of the true God, being an atheist might be better
than having the wrong God, so maybe not so much after all...
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