Professor Keith Wyma of Whitworth University explains Pascal’s Wager and how it could affect our beliefs and how we live our lives.
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Wyma’s summary is both concise and illustrative of where the Wager breaks down logically. I noted this problem generally in a response to one of the “Ask an Atheist” questions (“Why Don’t Atheists Believe in God” on February 24th): the snag is the assumption that there is only one venue to place one’s bet (In Wyma’s case, “Christianity” as though Protestants and Catholics and Orthodox and so on could be mushed together). In actual fact, the potential better is facing a veritable Las Vegas of options, competing religious casinos (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.), each one of which has varying tables on hand, all lobbying for your one and only bet to be placed there and not somewhere else. Pascal’s Wager carries weight only so long as the game is rigged as a simple either/or option where only one faith (or version of it) is offered as the sole alternative to nonbelief. Three Card Monte anyone?
I do like Wyma’s phrase “fake it till you make it” though, which brings up another, perhaps even more troubling, aspect to the logic of the Wager. Should a god even accept a “faith” tendered not out of genuine conviction, but only as a probabilistic dodge to insure you against hell fire? And is a deity that would spare the trickester on those grounds but roast an otherwise virtious non-believer who could not in good conscience trim their convictions so finely be rightly accused of a distorted sense of justice?
Pascal’s Wager is thus as big a can of worms as the one it is seeking to put a lid on.
First, I’d say that since it is “Pascal’s” wager, he gets to set the venue. Let the religionists get their own wager! He presents it in the context he believes and let’s the hearers take their chances against his odds.
I would also take issue with Wyma’s presentation as the wager representing accepting “christianity”. No one is going to win this wager by accepting anything less than the person of The Lord Jesus Christ. The theme of scripture beginning to end is to relate to the one true living God on His terms, our good works to Him are equal to filthy used rags (Is 64:6). He is also clear that contrary to the imaginary god you set up, God will expose and condemn every phoney (Matt 7:21-23). Even though the wager, like all illustrations, has its limitations, the motive is right. He cared that no one experience the heat that he believed in his heart those who bet against it would experience.