Pascal's Wager... has this been discussed at length here? [View All]

[MarkCharles]

I'm sort of new here.. been watching for a few weeks.

Seems like most of the antagonists here fall on one end of the arguments or the other, with a distinct preponderance of folks who have made honest decisions NOT to take the wager, to, in effect, just let their minds and their experience and training and education in life guide them, and be willing to turn to nothing more than dust after their life is over.

But, I DO SEE several people frantically trying to prove that not being able to prove anything religious, (especially anything Christian) seems to enervate them to some rather ridiculous claims. Claims like the following:

"When it is said there are other ways of knowing, it is meant that logical positivism or empiricism has limitations, and other more subjective ways do allow for the aquisition of knowledge"

"So to say that nothing exists besides science, as a way of obtaining knowledge, whether it be a method, epistemology, something like intuition, or any combination thereof, is ridiculous."


"Neither atheism nor religion, by themselves, kill people."

Just a small sampling from the many posts by those who insist their religious views are superior to the views of others.

Now, who walks into the "Pascal's wager"?

Is that the ultimate test of Crhistian belief?

"Pascal's Wager, also known as Pascal's Gambit, is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist Blaise Pascal that even if the existence of God could not be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though God exists, because one living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose.

"The wager is described in Pensées this way:
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is.."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

Do people here live by that wager? If not, why not?