why not to wager

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Blaise Pascal said, “Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.” Pascal’s argument states that one has infinite gain, heaven, if he chooses to believe in God’s existence and nothing to lose if God does not exist. Which raises a question: how does one really know there are no losses believing in God? Pascal fails to mention other types of religion because his argument is based on a Christian God. What if an atheist loving God existed? One may argue that there may be more to lose; therefore, he/she will oppose Pascal’s Wager due to the fact that there may be more than one God.
In today’s modern world, there are believers as well as non-believers who constantly question the existence of God. Instead, one may believe in Buddha or someone else he/she envision in their mind to worship. In Pascal’s argument, it is black and white. He does not take into consideration that there are many different religions because he only believes in a Christian God being the only God. Pascal’s argument is a one sided argument. His argument only applies to one who believes in Christianity, and it does not apply to hundreds of different beliefs around the world. On Examiner.com, the writer in an article states, “He will not leave us or desert us. He has given us His Word, the Holy Spirit.” He, who is identified as God, will not leave his followers because he has given his followers his word. One does not know if he/she has reached death and is seeking afterlife in eternal bliss because there are many Gods who say different things. Therefore, one ...

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... due to the simple fact that he only considered one Christian God. One may believe and worship a God his/her entire life, while another man has a different perception of who God is. The diverse world has countless religions, practice different beliefs, and have a wide array of how one worships his/her God. With that being said, one cannot know that there is only one Christian God standing with the key to Heaven because it is possible there are many Gods. If there were many Gods, one would have a great deal to lose if he/she pursues Pascal’s Wager.

Works Cited

Examiner.com.2014.Web.1Jan.2014

Examiner.com.2014.Web.1Jan.2014

Timothy Keller. “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” New York: Penguin,
2009
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