"If I'm wrong, I lose nothing. If you're wrong..."

[NaturaLCalamity]

"...you lose everything."

I've heard this answer before, when religious people are asked the simplest questions and aren't able to answer it. Any thoughts on this? I mean, if they are wrong, then they have nothing to lose since being dead, nothing they've done in the past really matters. And if atheists are wrong, then we'll just have to suffer...?

[Will]

Pascal's wager is false. There isn't one religion, therefore it's a false choice. The likelihood of hell's existence cannot be established, therefore it's a false comparison. It's just a horrible, illogical, fallacious mess.

[Tinyal]

"...you lose everything."

I've heard this answer before, when religious people are asked the simplest questions and aren't able to answer it. Any thoughts on this? I mean, if they are wrong, then they have nothing to lose since being dead, nothing they've done in the past really matters. And if atheists are wrong, then we'll just have to suffer...?

This is an old, old Theist argument, long debunked & shown to be completely false - hopefully, after thinking about it for a little while, the OP will see why this is so.

For a fairly humorous (and somewhat adult) summary of why it's a useless, nonsensical argument, see the following link (there are many, many others on Pascal's Wager):

http://saintgasoline.com/2008/12/28/wha ... ure-wrong/

[AlP]

"...you lose everything."

I've heard this answer before, when religious people are asked the simplest questions and aren't able to answer it. Any thoughts on this? I mean, if they are wrong, then they have nothing to lose since being dead, nothing they've done in the past really matters. And if atheists are wrong, then we'll just have to suffer...?

If they are wrong then they lose something at least. They have based many aspects of their life on a false belief. They have presumably done different things. Had they not taken the false belief into account they might have done better things. And even just thinking is doing is doing something. There are all kinds of interesting things I think about that a religious person presumably cannot, on account of it being wrong according to their rules.

They're also betting on a particular deity, religion and denomination. What if they get that wrong? Then they have the worst of both views. And their chances of picking the right religion are not in their favor.

The atheist view makes the most sense, even if I accept this silly argument. If there is an afterlife and I have to appease some deity to get the good version, I have a 100% chance of being screwed. The religious person has a 99.99% (or whatever) chance of being screwed (on account of being religious but not the right religion). If there is no afterlife, I don't waste my life practicing religion, whereas they do. Not that practicing religion is necessarily such a bad thing in most cases. Both my roommates are religious: one Jew and one Christian. They're both cool. They aren't wasting their lives away so much.

[Heretical Rants]

With infinite possible Gods, it is likely that if one of them does exist and He is the kind of guy that punishes nonbelievers, that it isn't their God.  By worshiping their God, they could just be making the real God even angrier at them.

For example, Trishumasutari created a Hell specifically for religious fundamentalists.  The nonbelievers/whatever get to wander the Earth for all eternity, watching over their decedents, and the precious few who figure it all out get to meet Him, have a nice long chat, then return to the ranks of the spirit ancestors.

[Chimera]

[youtube:1zhroafz]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg[/youtube:1zhroafz]

[LoneMateria]

Like everything else religion costs time and money.  Money can be measured but time cannot.  In addition the dogmas that are often attached to religion becomes another price to pay.  Such as the unnecessary fear that hell inflicts on people in addition the unjustified hate for others who don't share your beliefs.  There is supposedly a link between stress and health, and the more you stress yourself the more health problems you will have.  I'd say fear and hate cause stress.  This makes time impossible to measure because not only do you have to account for the time you put in, but also for the potential time you lost due to stress.

I don't have to mention the flawed Pascal's Wager that horse is dead.

[karadan]

Pascal's wager is false. There isn't one religion, therefore it's a false choice. The likelihood of hell's existence cannot be established, therefore it's a false comparison. It's just a horrible, illogical, fallacious mess.

Not to mention, they'd have wasted their lives being all pious, dour and boring for nothing.

[HandsandDreams]

Pascal's Wager encourages you to feel better about not thinking.  That's what I don't like about it.