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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 5:41 am
Let's adjust the wager a bit and see how it works:
If Odin is real, you'll go to Valhalla when you die, providing that you slew your enemies and died in battle (for those of you not familiar, Valhalla rocks the most).
If Odin is not real, you'll end up either in some other afterlife (and all of them read as pretty fucking dull) or in nothingness.
Therefore, it is in your own best interest to start killing people.
Boru
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 11:01 am
(April 11, 2015 at 5:41 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Let's adjust the wager a bit and see how it works:
If Odin is real, you'll go to Valhalla when you die, providing that you slew your enemies and died in battle (for those of you not familiar, Valhalla rocks the most).
If Odin is not real, you'll end up either in some other afterlife (and all of them read as pretty fucking dull) or in nothingness.
Therefore, it is in your own best interest to start killing people.
Boru
I was planning on worshiping Dionysus, but you make a good point. Maybe I should put down my wine glass and start killing people.
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 11:30 am
(April 11, 2015 at 11:01 am)Pyrrho Wrote: (April 11, 2015 at 5:41 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Let's adjust the wager a bit and see how it works:
If Odin is real, you'll go to Valhalla when you die, providing that you slew your enemies and died in battle (for those of you not familiar, Valhalla rocks the most).
If Odin is not real, you'll end up either in some other afterlife (and all of them read as pretty fucking dull) or in nothingness.
Therefore, it is in your own best interest to start killing people.
Boru
I was planning on worshiping Dionysus, but you make a good point. Maybe I should put down my wine glass and start killing people.
You two go do your Odin thing. I'll make sure the wine is safe while you're gone.
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 11:49 am
(April 11, 2015 at 11:30 am)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: (April 11, 2015 at 11:01 am)Pyrrho Wrote: I was planning on worshiping Dionysus, but you make a good point. Maybe I should put down my wine glass and start killing people.
You two go do your Odin thing. I'll make sure the wine is safe while you're gone. 
Don't trust him! He's after your wine!
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 3:36 pm
(April 11, 2015 at 5:41 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: If Odin is real, you'll go to Valhalla when you die, providing that you slew your enemies and died in battle (for those of you not familiar, Valhalla rocks the most).
Valhalla is an implausible afterlife, as, since the afterlife neither fully preserves nor fully abolishes but transcends, no one would want to slay his "enemies" for all eternity.
Further, what if it were a substantive moral claim to "love one's enemies" and refuse to slay them?
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 3:47 pm
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2015 at 3:53 pm by Iroscato.)
(April 11, 2015 at 3:36 pm)datc Wrote: (April 11, 2015 at 5:41 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: If Odin is real, you'll go to Valhalla when you die, providing that you slew your enemies and died in battle (for those of you not familiar, Valhalla rocks the most).
Valhalla is an implausible afterlife, as, since the afterlife neither fully preserves nor fully abolishes but transcends, no one would want to slay his "enemies" for all eternity.
Further, what if it were a substantive moral claim to "love one's enemies" and refuse to slay them? Of course it is, but you have completely failed to outline how the Judeo-Christian version is in any way more plausible. The vikings were pretty much the dominant power in their part of the world for centuries. I bet their warriors felt pretty damn secure in their beliefs each time they saw their enemies get routed before them. Just because christianity and Islam are the two largest relgions in the world now, they most likely won't be in the coming centuries. They will plataeu, decline, and eventually be lost to the annals of the relentless juggernaut that is time, remembered only as subjects of academic interest to the scholars of our descendants.
Religions, like empires, rise and fall with the ages. The people of Rome thought their empires would last forever. Granted, it lasted a VERY long time, but compared to the length our species has been around, it was barely an afterthought.
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 5:53 pm
(April 11, 2015 at 3:36 pm)datc Wrote: Valhalla is an implausible afterlife
Holy fuck! The irony is strong with this one.
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 8:26 pm
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2015 at 8:28 pm by robvalue.)
So... you are comparing fairy tales to see which one is more "realistic"? I'm afraid you've abandoned that tool long ago after the huge number of assumptions necessary to believe in any kind of afterlife at all.
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 9:31 pm
(April 11, 2015 at 3:36 pm)datc Wrote: Further, what if it were a substantive moral claim to "love one's enemies" and refuse to slay them?
The the god of moses would slay your ass!
Quote:NUMBERS 31:17-18 God commanded Moses to kill all of the male Midianite children and "kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." The virgins were presumably raped.
Really, why won't god, who loves you so much he'll kill his own son for you, take your calls? If god really loved Datc, he would at least talk to you as well as your real dad did, using COMMUNICATION and not telepathic "warm feelings."
Did your real dad hide from you, never to allow you to see his face or know without question that he was there?
As a child, did you feel more real love from your father or from your missing god?
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RE: Pascal's Wager Revisited
April 11, 2015 at 10:25 pm
(April 11, 2015 at 8:26 pm)robvalue Wrote: So... you are comparing fairy tales to see which one is more "realistic"? I'm afraid you've abandoned that tool long ago after the huge number of assumptions necessary to believe in any kind of afterlife at all.
Here's what I did: I described a part of the general structure of a plausible afterlife. The Valhalla afterlife fails to fit into it, while the Christian afterlife does fit into it; as a result, the latter is judged (again if there is an afterlife at all) reasonable, while the former, not reasonable.
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