Wanna make a bet on God?
During the Enlightenment in 18th Century France, when agnosticism and atheism were fashionable among the intellectuals of the time, Voltaire and other contemporaries noted that the brilliant mathematician Blaise Pascal was an observant Catholic.
When asked, Pascal observed that there were just two possibilities:
1. God exists.
2. God does NOT exist.
As a precursor to the philosophy of pragmatism, Pascal contended that it was better to be a faithful Catholic than an agnostic or atheist. He explained that in the case that God exists and you do what He expects, you win. In the case that God does not exist, and you attend your church services and do the other things the church tells you He expects, you gain social benefits in a support system that exists in virtually all religions. Like insurance, it buys you peace of mind. In either case you win. This was the first formal use of decision theory, by the way (Connor, 2006).
As Pascal put it:
“If reason cannot be trusted, it is a better wager to believe in God than not.”
Of course, there are some glaring holes in this logic:
What if God exists and (of course) realizes that you are only making a decision-tree bet – in effect gaming Him?
What if God exists, but he’s not the God you have been worshiping?
Well, then, how does one know?
There are several possible answers here:
- “By their fruit ye shall know them” – who seem to be happiest, to have the best-raised children who contribute to society, who live longest (you’ll need to do a state-level statistical average here)?
- If you’re a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and keep records well, then an accumulation of continuing personal revelation that consistently pans out brings with it a growing conviction with time, and an abiding inner peace. Our personal journals are loaded with examples of this.
- Consider also what the New Testament talks about a lot: exercise faith. Yes, as Kierkegaard said, this is something testable: EXERCISE faith and act on it – and look at the results in your own life.