Pascal's Wager

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    Socrates makes the claim that “no harm can befall a good person in this life or the next” (Socrates). This means that bad things cannot happen to good people if they love God. If he is a good person in life, then he will go to Heaven and will be at a certain gain in the afterlife. If he has faith in the gods, then no harm will come to him. The readings, “Beyond Good and Evil” and “The Birth of Tragedy” are written by Friedrich Nietzsche, and have diverse ways of speaking of God then Blaise Pascal

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    sufficient evidence should not hinder setting of belief. In Pascal’s wager, he bases his argument on the belief of the existence of God (Schlesinger, 557). The wager gives a choice of whether God exists, or does not. In the acceptance of Pascal’s wager, one acknowledges that God exists though there is no physical evidence. If one denies the wager he denies the existence of God. Pascal goes ahead to explain that if one accepts the wager, and turns out to be true that God does exist then the individual

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    saying we, ourselves, already are involved in a wager as to the existence of God. (Pascal 232) Either he exists, or he does not. But, the major focus is the reward of this wager. Pascal believes that God rewards believers and punishes disbelievers, so he thinks that it is rational to be faithful. In this paper, I will argue against Pascal when he stated that it is rational to be faithful. The Wager; does He exist or does He not? Pascal uses the Wager as a tool for reasoning into faith. Reason

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    my atheist friend. First I will explain Pascal’s argument. Second I will explain one of the arguments of Aquinas’s that is in favor of the existence of god. Then I am going to explain what’s the central difference between the two arguments is. I will conclude by stating whether I was successful in converting my atheist friend. Pascal doesn’t understand that the atheist or the believer would be persuaded by his argument. Instead, he handles the Wager to the curious and unconvinced. I have a

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    fields of study in all of these subjects, such as inventing the calculator or improving the study of fluids. When it comes to philosophy, he laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities. The idea of Pascal’s Wager was one of his most prominent pieces of thought. Pascal’s Wager argues that we don’t know whether God exists, therefore we should play it safe and believe in him instead of being sorry. Reason can not settle which way people incline, but a belief of a relevant outcome can. The

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    of Blaise Pascal’s, “The Wager”, Simon Blackburn’s “Pascal’s Wager”, and Linda Zagzebski’s “Pascal’s Wager: An Assessment”. I will be comparing Pascal’s beliefs with the beliefs of Blackburn and Zagzebski as they discuss different ways to believe in God and if believing in God is a gamble on ones after-life, or simply just religious preference. I will discuss the works of these three philosophers and explain how their works may correlate and differ. The question presented in Pascal’s work is still

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    Does God Exist? The existence of God is a question that has troubled and plagued mankind since it began to consider logic. Is there a God? How can we be sure that God exists? Can you prove to me that He is real? Does His existence, or lack thereof, make a significant difference? These loaded questions strike at the heart of human existence. But the real question is, can we answer any of them? These questions are answered in the arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal and St. Anselm of

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    In this paper I will contrast the ways that Blaise Pascal and Saint Anselm of Canterbury attempted to convince people to believe in God. Before getting into the two arguments I should first clarify a few key terms. Firstly, the difference between ordinary and religious beliefs. An ordinary belief is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a typical belief based on adequate evidence. An example would be “I believe the sky is blue because I’ve observed it as blue countless times”. Religious beliefs on the

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    On Pascal’s Wager Although Blaise Pascal rejects the theological hermeneutic of the Scholastics, who emphasize rational proof and explanation of God, in favor of a theology of blind faith, he nevertheless offers a rational argument for his belief based upon a decision-theoretic analysis of wagering for or against the existence of God. This infamous and incredibly intuitive argument has found itself the object of harsh critique with recent developments in mathematics and philosophy. Despite these

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    reason is seen in numerous philosophical writings such as Blaise Pascal’s Faith is a Logical Bet or W.K. Clifford’s The Ethics of Belief. In both we find strengths and weaknesses which defend their individual beliefs based on reasoning and logical thinking. Before we consider what Blaise Pascal’s argument is between faith and reason, we must

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