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On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:19:35 +0000, T Wake said :
>
> "Kent Paul Dolan" <xanthian@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1166134405.204687.225690@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Dante Alighieri wrote:
>>
>>> Pascal's wager:
>>
>>> Blaise Pascal said, "It is prudent to believe in God's existence,
>>> since little can be lost if there is no God, and eternal happiness can
>>> be gained if there is one."
>>
>> That proposition sounds so seductive, yet like all shell games, it is a
>> bad wager.
>>
>> For, as it is the case that God does not exist, then believing in God
>> has all of these negative effects:
>>
> <snip for brevity>
>
> Not to mention this pre-supposes the existence of the Christian God and no
> other - especially no other "jealous" deity who would condemn the non
> believer to an eternity of punishment. To really be a sound "wager" you
> would have to consider the existence of all the other possible deities,
> which kind of changes the odds.
Pascal, in 1654, was living in a world were not being a roman catholic
could have very serious consequences. What was a good option 350
ago in Europe is no longer an obvious choice in the world we know now.
>
> As an aside, assuming heaven existed, and good people who didn't believe
> in God weren't allowed in, but bad people who did (even if only because of
> a flawed idea of a wager) believe got in - why would you want to go there?
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