Pascal's Wager

Dear Gary,

I know you haven't had time to respond to my last post but I thought of this today and wanted to share it with you.

I minored in Philosophy in college and some of the "big questions" of philosophy have to do with God and the meaning of life. Blaise Pascal came up with a wager that described how he began to believe in God. It goes something like this.

Draw a chart on a piece of paper with four boxes (two on top and two below). At the top of the chart, write "God exists" and "God Doesn't Exist" over each box. At the side, write "Godly Life" and "Ungodly Life" beside each box. Okay, now we are going to fill in the boxes.

Write "-1" in the box where "God Doesn't Exist" and "Godly Life" intersect. If you have followed all the "rules" and lived a good life and then, after death, you discover that God doesn't exist, that nets you a -1 because you could have been doing whatever the heck you wanted but you led a Godly life instead. A waste of time.

Write "+1" in the box where "God Doesn't Exist" and "Ungodly Life" intersect. If you have lived your life however you want to and then it turns out that there is no God, well you have netted +1. You have gotten to do whatever you want. Hooray for you.

Write "- (minus) infinity" in the box where "God Exists" and "Ungodly Life" intersect. Let's say you spent your life doing whatever you want and not believing in God and then it turns out that there IS a God after all. Oops. Not a good outcome.

Write "+ infinity" in the box where "God Exists" and "Godly Life" intersect. What if you have believed in God and done your very best to live a godly life? And then it turns out that there IS a God. Well, as my college professor put it, "you have won the cosmic lottery!"

So, if we compare the different outcomes, we see that the best you can do while NOT believing in God is a "+1." The best you can do with BELIEVING in God is "+ infinity." And then look at the WORST you can do in each case. Pascal points out that you are better off believing because the worst that can happen is a "-1."

This is a pretty logical, unemotional and simplified way to look at things but I always enjoyed the idea of it.

-Malady