How can someone believe in a “person” that they have no corporeal knowledge of? Can a person put all of their faith into a deity that may not even exist? Religion has been a part of human existence since the beginning of time, but Christianity formed less than 2000 years ago without being at all taken down, shows that there has to be some sound proof to this religion. Christianity, Pascal’s own religion and the basis of the Wager, is the largest religion in the world, with a following of over 2 billion people, which spans over approximately thirty denominations worldwide. Pascal’s Wager means to show that being a Christian is more beneficial than not being a Christian due to a smaller loss when humans have faith. The Wager is a philosophical apologetic, which is an argument for the existence of a god or gods. With this wager, Pascal wants people to realize the potential outcomes and how they affect them eternally. Since Pascal is a Christian at the time of writing the Wager, he is calling for trust and faith that his Christian God is the God.
Blaise Pascal wrote numerous books throughout his lifetime, but one was published after his death call the Pensées. The Pensées are a collection of smaller notes and thoughts Pascal had when going through his life, they were gathered in the time after his death and put together and in included in them was the Wager. Pascal’s Wager is #233 of the Pensées and talks about how one can decide on whether or not they should believe in God, and the outcome of their beliefs because God either does exist, or he does not. He says that you have to choose one side to be on, you cannot be partial to both sides. With wagering, you have gains and losses, which Pascal explains in the Wager: “You have two thi...
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...re implanted into minds as a test of the mind versus the heart to figure the rationality in humans. As said already, rationality has to do with the mind, while faith is in the heart. If it were a fight over finding rationality as to why choosing one religion over another is better, it would not be fully supported because finding the complete reason for faith will not be finished seeing as “the heart has reason which reason cannot understand” (Pascal 467).
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Arrhenius, Gustaf, Ryberg, Jesper and Tännsjö, Torbjörn, "The Repugnant Conclusion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
Pascal’s Wager was a major strength of his theory on God and Religion. The argument made in Pascal’s Wager is an example of apologetic philosophy. It was written and published in Pensées by the 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal’s Wager claims that all humans must bet their lives on whether God exists. He argues that rational people should seek to believe in God. If God does not exist the loss is minimal, but if God does exist there is an infinite gain, eternity in Heaven. It was a ground-breaking theory because it utilized probability theory and formal decision theory. Pascal’s Wager is applicable both to atheists and theists. While other philosophies may
SALAMUCHA, AGNIESZKA. Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy, Spring2009, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p166-168, 3p
Rachels, James, and Stuart Rachels. "7,8,9,10." In The elements of moral philosophy. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010. 97-145.
Pascal’s Wager is an argument that tries to convince non-theists why they should believe in the existence of the Christian god. Pascal thinks non-theists should believe in God’s existence because if a non-theist is wrong about the existence of God, they have much more to lose than if a theist is wrong about the existence of God. Pascal begins his argument by stating that everyone must make a wager. This wager everyone places is on whether or not God exists. Pascal believes everyone must make a wager based on two reasons, everyone eventually dies and God is a possible being.
Human beings’ belief systems don’t always work according to evidence. Belief is made up of
Perelman, Chaim. From _The New Rhetoric: A Theory of Practical Reasoning_. In Bizzell and Herzberg. 1384-1409.
In The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto begins by explaining the difference between the terms “rational,” and “non-rational.” He states quite simply, “An object that can thus be thought conceptually may be termed rational. The nature of deity described in the attributes above mentioned is, then, a rational nature; and a religion which recognizes and maintains such a view of God is in so far a ‘rational’ religion,” (Otto 1). Otto begins this work by arguing that the non-rational aspect of religion is, in itself, a very important part of religion; however, ideally religion should include both rational and non-rational experiences.
* The Aims of Argument. 4th ed Ed.Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Channell. New York:McGraw Hill,2003, 352-355.
Russell, Bertrand. “Why I Am Not a Christian,” in Introduction to Philosophy. 6th edition. Perry, Bratman, and Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2013, pp. 56-59.
The role of faith has been debated among many theologians, scientists, and philosophers. It has been greatly discussed and depicted throughout history as whether faith is logical when it comes to religion or whether faith is completely absurd. In this essay, I will focus on the role of faith through the lenses of Christian philosophers Sorean Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Faith plays an important role in Kierkegaard and Tillich theology; I will critically examine their depiction of faith and compare and contrast their passages. Kiergarrd view of faith is that it is completely absurd where as Ti
In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my belief that faith and reason are both needed to gain knowledge for three reasons: first, both concepts coexist with one another; second, each deals with separate realms of reality, and third, one without the other can lead to cases of extremism.
Taylor, C. Rationality in Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes editors Rationality and Relativism (Cambridge Press, 1982)
When looking at Pascal’s arguments that emerge in Pensees; the history, ideas, and people that influenced Pascal must be examined. Many of Pascal’s arguments involve the unity of both religion and science. This can be very controversial at a time where an absolute monarch challenges and tries to destroy other faith practices. Along with introducing scientific ideas others may misinterpret as trying to disprove God’s existence. Pascal was heavily influenced by the Christian church and was a firm believer in God. In fact, Pascal’s discoveries and experiments only solidify his faith even more. Pensees is Pascal’s thoughts on God and some other subjects that tie philosophy and the nature of man.
Melchert, Norman. The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. 4th ed. Toronto: McGraw Hill Companies, 2002.