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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Pascal's Wager

I was in church yesterday, and was thinking about how some people think a person has to be an idiot to be a Christian. I find that ironic.

First, let's talk about Pascal's Wager. Blaise Pascal said that deciding to be a Christian or not was like wagering. If you decide to be a Christian and are right that God is real and and you go to heaven, that's great. If you're wrong and believe "for no reason," what have you lost? If you choose not to believe and are right that there is no God, it may be a wash, but if you're wrong and you go to hell, OUCH. Therefore, it is logical to be a Christian because of the likely results of your belief.

Now we are in an age of Pascal's Wager on steroids. The last fifty years of research has shown us that Christians (for whatever reason) report being happier and less stressed, recover from surgery faster, have less depression, have fewer divorces, fewer suicides, live longer, and make more money (I'm sure I'm forgetting some).

That being the case, whether God can be proven to exist or not, how is it logical to choose much worse outcomes in this life, and potentially a much worse outcome after this life? Being a non-Christian is illogical.

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