Pascal's Wager? That's not like Portnoy's Complaint is it?
Re: ***BEST OF FORUM*** -- JimH Post Reply Top of thread Forum
Posted by: cq ®
07/18/2003, 18:24:10

Edit

Thanks for introducing me to Pascal's Wager, Jim.  Seems though that I had an existential encounter with it years before even hearing about it.

Let's see if I've got the gist of what it means: 

There are two posibilities:
1. God exists
or 2. There is no God.

If there is a God, He will reward your belief in Him (and JC?), and punish your unbelief (and how! - those guys with the pitchforks don't mess about - you keep roasting for all eternity).

If there is NO God, there's neither the chance of reward OR risk of punishment.  Therefore nothing has been gained, but nothing has been lost.

Consequently:  It's better to have the chance of reward by believing than to risk torment by not believing.

The premie version of Pascal's wager is similar in that, if Maharaji is "God" then the same consequences apply to their belief in him.  However, if he's not God, then there's a big difference - the "real" God would view them as apostate, with all the consequences that entails ...

~~~~~~~

 

 

And now for a little light relief:

 

COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHIES:


Taoism: Shit happens.

Confucianism: Confucius say: "Shit happens".

Buddhism: If shit happens, it's not really shit.

Islam: If shit happens, it's the will of Allah.

Judaism: Why does this shit always happen to us?

Hinduism: This shit happened in my last life too.

Protestantism: Shit happens cause you don't work hard enough.

Catholicism: Shit happens because you're bad.

Zen: What is the sound of one shit happening?

Moonies: Only happy shit happens.

Christian Science: Shit is in your mind.

Agnosticism: Maybe shit happens, maybe it doesn't

Jehovah Witness: Let us in and we'll tell you why shit happens.

Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this shit.

Hare Krishna: Shit Happens Shit Happens Shit Shit Happens Happens Shit Happens Rama Rama.

Atheism: No shit

 

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Modified by cq at Fri, Jul 18, 2003, 18:30:17

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