Pascal’s pagutharivu
I do not know whether God exists, but I know that I have nothing to gain from being an atheist if he does not exist, whereas I have plenty to lose if he does. Hence, this justifies my belief in God.
I do not know whether God exists, but I know that I have nothing to gain from being an atheist if he does not exist, whereas I have plenty to lose if he does. Hence, this justifies my belief in God.
January 10th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Richard Dawkins in his book ‘The God Delusion’ on Pascal’s wager :
“There is something distinctly odd about the argument, however. Believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of policy. At least, it is not something I can decide to do as an act of will. I can decide to go to church and I can decide to recite the Nicene Creed, and I can decide to swear on a stack of bibles that I believe every word inside them. But none of that can make me actually believe it if I don’t. Pascal’s wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God. And the God that you claim to believe in had better not be of the omniscient kind or he’d see through the deception.”
Rather than get comforted with Pascal’s wager, I side with Bertrand Russel and when confronted by real God, I would reply the same as the philosopher said he would. “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence”.
January 11th, 2010 at 9:34 am
yesprabhu,
Enakku theriyum indha madhiri edhavadhu post pottu maatikuven nu.. so here i have the retort quote
“Pascal’s argument is severely flawed theologically: one has to be naïve
enough to believe that God would not penalize us for false belief. Unless,
of course, one is taking the quite restrictive view of a naive God. (Bertrand
Russell was reported to have claimed that God would need to have created
fools for Pascal’s argument to work.)
But the idea behind Pascal’s wager has fundamental applications outside
of theology. It stands the entire notion of knowledge on its head. It
eliminates the need for us to understand the probabilities of a rare event
(there are fundamental limits to our knowledge of these); rather, we can
focus on the payoff and benefits of an event if it takes place. The probabilities of very rare events are not computable; the effect of an event on us is considerably easier to ascertain (the rarer the event, the fuzzier the odds).
We can have a clear idea of the consequences of an event, even if we do not know how likely it is to occur. I don’t know the odds of an earthquake,
but I can imagine how San Francisco might be affected by one. This idea
that in order to make a decision you need to focus on the consequences
(which you can know) rather than the probability (which you can’t know)
is the central idea of uncertainty. Much of my life is based on it.”
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb in THE BLACK SWAN
January 11th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
“THE BLACK SWAN” — I’m still slowing going through the pages. A tough and slow read, but a very very good one.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Hmm…I’ve heard this earlier, but I didn’t know Pascal was making a serious point, I thought he was making light and I found it enjoyable. Calvin is even more direct:
Calvin: Well. I’ve decided I do believe in Santa Claus, no matter how preposterous he sounds.
Hobbes: What convinced you?
Calvin: A simple risk analysis. I want presents. Lots of presents. Why risk not getting them over a matter of belief? Heck, I’ll believe anything they want.
Hobbes: How cynically enterprising of you.
Calvin: It’s the spirit of Christmas.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:50 am
gopi,
its pretty good da.. yet to finish it though… lost the book during my cbe train travel.. separate story that…
January 12th, 2010 at 12:51 am
dagalti
Yep. Absolutely the same point.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Yes. I do Agree with Nassim. As he says, Pascal’s argument is flawed theologically. To me trusting in God or otherwise is theological.
It can be applied to other domains of events in our life and reap benefits.
If God does exist , and if he judges me by my disregard to him rather than how I lead my life(shouldn’t the attributes of God prevent him from doing this?), I would be glad to go hell rather than sucking up to him in my present life.