the only easy day was yesterday

Sunday, October 28, 2007

At the gates will Thomas ask to see my hands?

No, we're not talking about aquinas right now. I just like the line. The topic is just a question worth being brought to the attention of those who have not yet confronted it. It's called Pascal's Wager, and it goes like this:

if you believe in God, and he exists, you go to heaven
if you believe in God, and he does not exist, you wast your sundays (live a pious life, etc)
if you do not believe in God, and he exists, you go to hell
if you do not believe in God, and he does not exist, it's all good

Pascal said that logically, there's no question. if you believe in God, you're much better of and safer because you aren't going to hell. I'll leave it at that for now, if anyone shows interest I'll get into it more later.

2 comments:

The W said...

what if there isnt necessarily a heaven or hell and you beleive in God. and if He exists and you follow His commandments your cool, if you dont, you get cut off from your people? but his commandments are extremely complicated and open to unbeleivable amounts of interpretation. and some of those commandments rely on a societal order and time that no longer exists...

Jasper Yate said...

He doesnt account for there not being a heaven and hell while there is a god. its among the many practical criticisms of his contention. as for the comandments, if they exists, as per God, then it must be that heaven and hell exist because to the best of my knowledge the historical accuracy of any commandments from God go hand in hand with documentation of claimed existence of heaven and hell, so as far as i know if God's commandments and rules exist then so must heaven and hell. but as for getting cut off from your people, God would be doing you a minimal amount of damage, and indeed be giving you small reason to live by his standards if there is no incentive of heaven or hell, why would i listen to someone telling me what to do in the sense of life purpose if my end is the same as those who don't listen? the human life is too short and acting morally is often too unpleasent for weak-willed humans to resist their physical urges towards sex and killing and greed in order to appease a God who offers no reward. i presume that the common response to this is that in itself a moral life is rewarding enough, but i cannot see this; were i too live and number of different strictly 'to God's word' religions i couldnt imagine it being more temporally pleasurable than having mass amounts of sex and doing lots of drugs and appeasing my animalistic instincts, i dont, and i chose to strive towards a morality, but that is a morality that as of yet for myself does not come from my belief in any sort of divinity.

man that game was sick. went into OT, packers won the toss and brett threw an 80 yd td. but i guess rakim is alright...