The Wager, part 3 ...What have you got to lose?

Pascal's
Pensées
Week 5 - August 14, 2014


How is your reading going? 

Today I'm wrapping up our discussion of The Wager, Pense #233.

Here's a rough summary of the four outcomes of the wager:

1. Risk believing in God, and it turns out that God exists = you win the bet, and you gain an infinite good (eternal life)
2. Risk believing in God, and it turns out that God doesn't exist = you lose the bet, but you haven't lost that much.
3. Risk not believing in God, and it turns out that God doesn't exist = you win the bet, but the winnings are not of ultimate value. 
4. Risk not believing in God, and it turns out that God does exist = you lose the bet, and your loss is infinite (eternity in hell).

Pascal uses mathematical logic to convince people to believe in God without rational proof of God's existence.

Then he goes on to give advice on what to do after you risk believing.  Pascal's prescription?  Act like a believer, and you'll become one.  Do Christian things - like worship, sacraments, prayer, bible reading - and you'll eventually live the life of a believer.  This sounds a lot like "fake it 'til you make it."  Peter Gilbert pointed out that this philosophy has some merit, according to social psychologist Amy Cuddy in this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are


Pense #233
Penguin, p. 123 (Section 2, II.418)
Classic, p. 68

"But there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite.  It is all divided; wherever the infinite is and there is not an infinity of chances of loss against that of gain, there is no time to hesitate, you must give all. And thus when one is forced to play he must renounce reason to preserve his life, rather than risk it for infinite gain, as likely to happen as the loss of nothingness...

At least learn your inability to believe, since reason brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe.  Endeavour then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions.  You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief, and ask the remedy for it.  Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions.  These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured.  Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc.  Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness. -- 'But this is what I am afraid of.' -- And why? What have you to lose?"


Reflection Questions:
Feel free to use the comments link below to post your thoughtful responses

• Do the terms and outcomes of the wager make sense to you?  What questions about believing in God persist even after Pascal's presentation?

• Take some time to do your own cost/benefit analysis of believing in God or living the Christian life, listing both what you gain and what you give up.  How do the costs stack up versus the benefits? 

• What do you think of Pascal's advice for skeptics to just do the acts of the Christian faith even if they don't fully believe?  How have you seen the "fake it 'til you make it" factor work in the life of discipleship (yours & others' lives)?

The Wager, part 2

Pascal's
Pensées
Week 4 - August 7, 2014


How is your reading going?  This week we'll continue the discussion of the Wager, Pense #233.

Why does Pascal introduce a wager, a bet, a "heads or tails" proposition?  Because "reason can decide nothing here."  Because of the truth claims about God as infinite being, Pascal concedes that human reason cannot comprehend the question "Does God exist?"

If reason cannot help, perhaps mathematical reason can.  Pascal begins to take us on a journey of the mind that doesn't prove God's existence, but nevertheless bring rational skeptics to have faith that God does exist.

Pense #233
Penguin, p. 121 (Section 2, II.418)
Classic, p. 66

"Let us then examine this point, and say, "God is, or He is not."  But to which side shall we incline?  Reason can decide nothing here.  There is an infinite chaos which separated us.  A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up.  What will you wager?  According to reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.

Do not then reprove for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it.  'No, but I blame them for having made, not this choice, but a choice; for again both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault, they are both in the wrong.  The true course is not to wager at all.'

Yes; but you must wager.  It is not optional.  You are embarked. Which will you choose then?"


Reflection Questions:
Feel free to use the comments link below to post your thoughtful responses

• How important is "reason" to your way of thinking and living?  How comfortable are you with what seems "unreasonable?"

• What do you think of Pascal's setting aside of reason as a possible defense of either the proposition that God is or is not?  Does it make sense to you?  Will it make sense to skeptics you know? 

• Do you have much experience with games of chance?  Considering how the church has often condemned gambling, what do you think of Pascal's move to defend the faith by this means?