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- God either exists or does not exist. (In this context it is the Christian God being debated)<\/li>\n
- If you believe in God and he does not exist, you have lost nothing and gained nothing.<\/li>\n
- If you believe in God and he does exist, you have lost nothing and gained everything.<\/li>\n
- If you do not believe in God and he does exist, you have lost everything and gained nothing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
This is supposed to lead the thinker to the conclusion that the only sensible course of action is to “wager” God exists and believe. In some respects, this early example of Game theory (remarkably similar to the prisoners dilemma), is quite ingenious and serves as good grounding in logical thinking. Some of the people who trumpet this line of “logic” do so without knowing the source and may even have developed it themselves (aren’t they clever).<\/p>\n
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<\/a>While Pascal’s Wager is superficially sound and appealing, it really does not hold up to scrutiny. While it may have been considered brilliant logic (although this is in doubt) in the seventeenth century, it certainly does not do so today.<\/p>\n