Pascal's Wager

[mzuniga]

If you’ve ever run into a debate with fundamentalist Christians, it’s a good bet that you either have encountered, or will encounter a version of Pascal’s wager.

What is Pascal’s Wager?

Here is the short version:

Either God exists or he doesn’t.
If He does exist, and you believe in him, you will go to Heaven and gain everything.
If He does exist, and you don’t believe in him, you’ll go to Hell and lose everything.
If He doesn’t exist, and you believe in him, you lose nothing.
If He doesn’t exist, and you don’t believe in him you lose nothing.
The only way you can gain is to believe in him. If you do, you might gain everything, but the worst that can happen is you lose nothing. If you don’t believe in him, the best that can happen is you lose nothing, but if you’re wrong, you lose everything. Therefore, the safest bet is to believe in him.

Here is an interesting rebuttal.

If God exists, then so does Satan.

If Satan exists, and you worship him, you are guaranteed to go to hell. Eternity in Hell as “one of the staff” is far better than eternity in hell as an outsider.

If Goes exists, and you worship him, you still have a problem, because you may be worshiping the wrong God. Maybe you worship the Christian God, only to find that the one true God is the Muslim God, or the Jewish God, who will immediately consign you to hell because you worshiped Jesus Christ as a deity, which is expressly forbidden.

Since worshiping Satan is the only possibility with a guaranteed positive outcome, the actual safest bet is to be a Satan worshiper!

Try that one on them the next time you hear Pascal’s wager, and see how they react!

[Ellainix]

Of course, what if there is no Satan and yet there is still a spiritual standard for morals? You've then excluded yourself from the theme park.

[mzuniga]

True enough. The argument only works with fundies, who wouldn't dare say there is no Satan.

Strangely enough, saying there is no Satan in their minds is almost like saying there is no God. If one part of their little fantasy crumbles, then the whole edifice is likly to come down on their heads.

[LoneMateria]

[youtube:1k9d9uer]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1zg_uHOQw[/youtube:1k9d9uer]

Enjoy the stripper factory.  Sweeeeeeeet!