Reminder that Pascal's Wager is air tight and no one has been able to effectively rebuke it.
>inb4 people raise arguments Pascal himself anticipated and addressed because they've never read Pensées
>>1351158
What if God favours people who do not believe he exists?
>>1351158
but which god do you believe in?
So what religion has the greatest disparity between a good and a bad afterlife? Seems like that would be the one to go for.
>>1351158
sincere belief is an involuntary response yo your experiences; you can't choose to believe something.
>>1351158
He dismisses the plausibility of non-Christian belief systems on the basis of "lol nobody really believes that, they're just atheists in denial", which is clearly false.
>>1351158
it only works if Christianity is the only religion and God doesn't care what variation of it you practice
>>1351158
The thing with the wager is that it's not reasonable to swallow the god/punishment premise.
Otherwise I guess you are just instantly believing anything that anyone tells you? If you buy the "god/afterlife" meme wager now I can Pascals Wager you about literally any uncertain claim I make and you are obligated to obey whatever I propose.
>>1351158
a) God might favour those who have a keen and discerning mind; and in fact reward those people with entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, whilst kicking the sycophants to Hell.
b) God might not be God. God described in another religion might exist. He might be neutral towards non-believers, but wrathful towards people who believe in his competition.
Two sound rebuttals of Pascal's Wager.
Any number of ridiculous concepts can be placed within Pascal's Wager. Suppose there's a magical space fairy who'll grant eternal life to all those who believe. Assuming the space fairy is real it's preferable to believe, but of course it's not real. Pascal's Wager doesn't validate or prove the existence of a divine being and forces people to accept consequences which only follow logically from believing in a divine being.
>God rewards us for false belief
Good one. I also love the fact that Pascal shifts the emphasis of importance from beliefs themselves to their rewards. Because that definitely doesn't contradict the very core of Christianity or anything like that.
I could also name all the potential religions that could be true etc., but I won't even bother with that one
>>1351229
Exactly. Pascal's wager also implies that you should gravitate to the most extreme sects regardless of how much the Bible supports their beliefs.
