Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. It was set out in note 233 of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatise on Christian apologetics.
I really love to ponder this in other areas of belief. Take Global Warming. To me the debate isn't whether it is real or not. Like Pascal's Gambit on the existence of God, if we do nothing we will pay the price, where as if we act then we may have a chance of saving our precious planet. To me it is better to act than do nothing.
I'm not a scientist. I have not read all the extremely long and complicated science papers out there on Global Warming, neither have I read the arguments against. And I think to argue against Global Warming you at least need to have read of a few research papers as to why scientist believe it exists.
I have enough going on in my life, to make me not want to spend months doing this research, to argue the case either way. And it would take months to research something like this and just gain a small amount of expertise in the subject to make my comments worth considering.
I think I'll follow Pascal's greater mind and go with his Gambit.
3 comments:
Thanks Tracy. I haven't heard that before and like you, think that it can be applied in a number of areas. Something good to ponder before I head off to bed!
Absolutely! I concur! In any case overconsumption and pollution aren't good for any of us.
Wow, that makes you think. Worthwhile concept!
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