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Today:

Today:. Papers Pascal’s Wager: Metaphysical Ignorance The Wager Acquiring Belief in God The “Many Gods” Objection. Pascal’s Wager. Pascal didn’t think one could give a good argument for the truth of religious belief.

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Today:

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  1. Today: • Papers • Pascal’s Wager: • Metaphysical Ignorance • The Wager • Acquiring Belief in God • The “Many Gods” Objection

  2. Pascal’s Wager • Pascal didn’t think one could give a good argument for the truth of religious belief. • He assumes that there is no decisive evidence for or against God’s existence. • For this reason, Pascal begins from a position of “metaphysical ignorance”.

  3. The Wager • But Pascal goes on from his assumption of metaphysical ignorance to argue that we still have strong pragmatic reasons to believe in God. • Pascal's insight was to see the choice about whether to believe in God as a wager. • Since, as Pascal assumes, we are ignorant about the truth in this matter, we can only choose the best and safest bet.

  4. The Wager Pascal writes: “You must wager. It is not optional. Which will you choose then?… Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.” [Pensees, section 233]

  5. Acquiring Belief in God • Pascal realizes that his argument will not convince anyone that God exists. (Pascal realizes that this argument won’t make believers out of atheists.) • Instead, he’s given reasons to think that it would be a “good bet” to acquire belief in God • Pascal offers a number of practical recommendations about how to acquire belief in God.

  6. Objection • By putting questions of truth to one side, Pascal manages to avoid many normal ways of objecting to an argument. (Notice, for example, that the Problem of Evil wouldn’t worry him at all.) • However, there is a standard line of objection that has been raised against Pascal. • Most agree with his reasoning given the way that he lays out the possibilities. • But philosophers have questioned this lay-out.

  7. Objection The standard objection is that: In laying out the “decision matrix”, Pascal hasn’t really started from a position of metaphysical ignorance.

  8. The “Many Gods” Objection • One way of pressing this objection is to point out the fact that there are a number of different religions out there. • The choice of religious belief is not simply a choice between theism and atheism. • We have to choose which religion to subscribe to.

  9. The “Many Gods” Objection • But further, if we are truly starting from a position of metaphysical ignorance, why should we assume that any of these religions has got it right? • Perhaps God is a rather fickle character who actually punishes belief and rewards atheism.

  10. The “Many Gods” Objection • If we start from a position of “metaphysical ignorance” we can’t rule out the possibility that God punishes belief and rewards atheism. • But this possibility would completely reverse the decision matrix. (On this possibility, disbelief is the best bet.) • If Pascal takes account of all the possibilities, there is no “safe bet”.

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