Argument Against the Argument of Pascal’s Wager
In Pascal’s Wager, Pascal pioneered new thoughts and opinions amongst his peers in probability theories by attempting to justify that believing in God is advantageous to one’s personal interest. In this paper, I will argue that Pascal’s argument rationalizing why one should believe in God fails and I will suggest that even if one was to accept Pascal’s wager theory, this will not be a suffice resolution to reap the rewards that God has promised to Christian believers like myself who has chosen to believe in God due to my early childhood teachings, familial and inherited beliefs.
Pascal offers a logical reason for believing in God: just as the hypothesis that God's existence is improbable, the
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Christians are devout believers in one God, the Bible and Heaven and Hell. We believe in God’s omniscience and omnipotence (all-powerful). Therefore, being a Christian myself, I believe that anyone claiming to believe in God when in fact they don’t are no different than an atheist because they are only saying they are believers in hopes of gaining a reward. I find this philosophical theory interesting because I have never heard of betting on God’s existence by pretending to believe in him. Oftentimes people like myself are taught about God and Christianity at an early age in life. Likewise, I was taught about God before I even began attending school. My entire family, including my ancestors practiced the Christian religion. My brother is currently a Pastor at his own church that my children and I attend weekly. It’s difficult for me to change my beliefs after being raised around nothing but believers and taught that through faith, Christians know that God exists. It was interesting to learn of different reasons that others have for believing or nor believing in God.
All in all, after examining the arguments that have been put forward against Pascal’s Wager, the wager fails to provide acceptable reasons as to why claiming to believe in God will be beneficial to those who are believing in God
His arguments includes religious experiences, existential / affective reasons, and Pascal's wager argument. Jordan shuts down the arguments given by others, and gives his own arguments to prove why faith and reason are in fact compatible.
Despite that, I know that I’m taking the better “wager” by believing in God. I know this for the reasons stated previously, plus when compared to the alternative, it makes more sense. Who would want to burn forever? The benefits of one are superior to the other, and the consequences are far more severe than the other. This is what Pascal was referring to and I support that belief and ‘’’wager’’ as
Bryce‘s responses in the reading comprehension unit demonstrate his ability to read and understand both fiction and non-fiction material at grade level. He was able to use a variety of comprehension strategies to make sense of unfamiliar text. Bryce‘s narrative piece entitled Blackout, demonstrates his ability to write grade level text for a variety of purposes and audiences. He is able to organize his writing effectively by including details to support his main idea. Bryce used language intentionally and edited his work for spelling, punctuation and grammar.
He introduces the idea with a game, a simple wager of " heads or tails". However, in his game, one side of the coin represents the belief that God exist, while the other means that God does not exist. What we bet on in Pascal's Wager is also more than your ordinary school yard gamble with higher stake. In this wager, betting our entire lives, as well as the infinite beyond which we live on this
Politicians call for missile defense projects. Many defense projects have failed and cost not only the government but taxpayers over 50 billion dollars. Lee Fang, a writer for The Intercept, shows how ineffective these programs have been in the past. The persuasiveness of Lee's argument in his article “Politicians Use North Korea H-Bomb Fears to Pitch Wasteful Missile Defense Projects” is based on a logical approach using facts, (logos), an emotion approach trying to rally us up (pathos), and on his credibility and the creditability of his sources (ethos). Lee's appeal to our logical (logos) side is based on facts.
This article is talking about human trafficking in Cambodia and Myanmar centered in south East Asia off the boarder of Thailand. It broadens the horizon for human trafficking in the aspects that it is not only sex trafficking that is occurring, but also labor trafficking and trafficking of human beings for body parts. I plan to use this article in my essay to broaden the horizon of human trafficking and to link human trafficking back to slavery. Quoting from the author he/she states “Captives from Myanmar and Cambodia are sold to captains on Thai fishing boats to work for months or even years on the boats with little or no payment, with long working days up to 20 hours a day under grave conditions.” The author of this article uses diction such
In a world where religion represents a crucial role in the lives of countless people, there is no doubt that it influences an individual’s daily decisions. There are numerous religions that have been created, although the most significant ones have been widely practiced for centuries. Each of the world’s major religions have distinctions that set them apart from others. Consequently, these distinctions cause turmoil between religions due to individual biased opinion for their God. Followers of a religion suppose that their faith is designated as the most favorable and true religion of all practices.
The ontological argument states that perfection is a part of the concept of God, and that perfection entails existence, and so the concept of God entails God’s existence. However, it can be argued that if God is an infinite goodness, then its contrary, evil, should not exist. Alas, there is evil in the world, and, therefore, God cannot exist. The ontological argument also seeks to demonstrate that God exists on the basis of concept alone. Pascal’s Wager attempts to justify the belief in God with an
Past leaders such as Andrew Jackson, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Marc Antony are evidence that society does not reward morality and good character in leadership. Society is drawn to leaders that have good rhetoric, propaganda, and charismatic personalities, and society supports them despite their immorality. Society is concerned about stability more than the morality of their leaders and will support immoral leaders in times of crisis to provide stability. In history there have been multiple leaders that have used rhetoric, propaganda and charismatic personalities to gain power, despite their morals.
In Lara Buchak’s essay, Can It Be Rational to Have Faith? , she asserts that everyday faith statements and religious faith statements share the same attributes. She later states that in order to truly have faith, a person ceases to search for more evidence for their claim, and that having faith can be rational. Although she makes compelling arguments in favor of faith in God, this essay is more hearsay and assumption than actual fact. In this paper, you will see that looking for further evidence would constitute not having faith, but that having faith, at least in the religious sense, is irrational.
Arguing for the existence of God from a philosophical perspective would need a more solidifying use of reason instead of evidence based logic. Because when trying to qualify your main thesis within an argument using evidence based logic and reasoning would aid in establishing credibility with your audience. So in Pascal's "The Wager" it utilizes argument theory of deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning or theory is similar to cause and effect inference, an example could be if you drop a ball it will hit the ground. However deductive theory validates the end result through the consequence of the action.
Lewis proved he was not one for hesitation when it came to voicing his theories about the universe. Carefully manufacturing his first theory with inductive reasoning, Lewis is sure to incorporate logical thinking in his argument for the Law of Human Nature by pointing out different pieces of evidence to larger, more universal statements. He makes general observations after comparisons with different universal laws as well as different civilizations throughout time. Following these remarks, he delves further into his theory that people don’t need to be taught the Law of Nature, but that almost everyone knows it by nature. In the second paragraph, Lewis further establishes logical persuasion by pointing out his “Power Behind” theory with deductive reasoning.
Pascal’s wager states that believing in God will either lead to infinite gain or finite loss while disbelief leads to infinite loss and finite gain depending on where God exists or not. It is not a way of proving if God exists but to say that believing in God has more benefits than disbelief in God. I don’t believe that the it is that simple with many different factors affecting the gain and loss. The wager itself is made with the idea of the christian God but there are so many religions out there with different beliefs and even different amounts of gods.
Blaise Paschal was a French mathematician and philosopher who building an argument on why one should believe in God, it is named Paschal’s Wager. According to Paschal’s Wager, it is better to have a belief in God than not believing in Him. God is known for punishing those who go against or do not believe in Him. Therefore, Paschal stated you should believe in God because after death you can be rewarded with an eternity in heaven. However, if you do not believe in God and he does exist you will be damned to the eternal suffering that is brought by hell.
Introduction: Professors Richard Dawkins and John Lennox go head to head in a battle to match their superior intellect. The debate was titled “Has Science Buried God?” Lennox also announced his new book “Gods Undertaker”. The John Lennox - Richard Dawkins Debate - bethinking.org. 2015