What The Hell Is Pascal's Wager ?

Pascal spent the final years of  his life putting together the beginnings of an apologia for Christianity. Although it was never fully completed,  the extant material was pieced together and published. It is  in  this work that one  finds Pascal's famous wager.

The  argument is  as follows: either God exists or he does not. We have to choose one way or  the other on  this issue;  it  is an unavoidable existential dilemma. If God does not exist ,  then we lose very little by believing that he does exist.  If he does exist, then we stand  to gain an  awful lot  by believing that he does , and  to lose an awful lot by thinking that he doesn't.

The wager is  not an argument for  the existence  of God; Pascal was aware that he could not convince unbelievers of God's existence  by rational argument.

It  is seen as an early example of decision-theory.  Pascal's reach was broad , and  in  the modern era his scientific and mathematical work is perhaps more impressive than  his religious apologetics.

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You don't want an existential crisis