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Would you "bet" on the afterlife?
Posted by Arashmania • 11/25/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: existentialism, feeling versus reason, god and the afterlife, humanity, pascal's philosophy, probability theory, religion
My latest post is about Pascal's Wager, which is an interesting theory and proposition. Simply stated, if you assume that there is a God and an afterlife, it's a win-win situation, regardless whether it is actual fact or not.
So would you bet on it?
arashworld.blogspot.com/
User Comments
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I bet on everything. -
There is not a doubt in my mind that there is an afterlife ( I have seen it!) Makes Earth look like a dump...
patricekarst.blogspot.com -
But which God and which concept of the afterlife?
Pascal's wager only makes sense if there's only one concept of God and the afterlife.... -
no more so than i'd wait for santa claus to pay my rent.
if you don't believe in the afterlife there wouldn't really be much point in pretending otherwise. -
Yes but it would be my luck the person I bet with did not and would not show up to pay.-
or maybe end up on the other side the heaven / hell divide. Don't think they'd allow much interaction between the two camps ... but who knows, wanna bet ; )
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no -
Pascals wager is not a win win for the following reason...
- It assumes we know which god to believe in, and that we have accurately interpreted this gods character, will, requirements, ect… If a god did exist, it could be equally possible that this god does not interact with us at all, did not create us, does not have a reward or punishment system, or does have rules that lead to reward or punishment but is different then how we have interpreted them, etc. There could be multiple gods with different rules and requirements. Or as Richard Dawkins suggested, “the wager does not account for the possibility that there is a god that rewards for honest attempts of reasoning and instead punishes one for blind faith.”
- If god is intelligent and moral enough to decide whether you go to heaven or hell, then he will see through your simple reasoning of believing in him just because of the reward and punishment conditions he has set in place. And if that is ones only reasoning for believing, for ones own self interest, it is rather selfish and unbecoming. You will only do good if big brother is watching and then expect big brother to reward you for it?
- If there is no god, you have indeed lost something, a large portion of your life that you wasted away dedicated to an imaginary being.
- It assumes we have free-will to choose what we believe or disbelieve.
- It assumes god created us with a spirit that will live on beyond our physical death.
www.travisjmorgan.com/blog/2008/04/16/what-if-you-are-wrong/
So no, I wouldn't bet on it. -
Had late husband hang around a couple months after he passed. So I know there is an afterlife. But before that, my grandmother was a big believer in reincarnation. When I went to church school we talked about reincarnation, being 12-14 years of age all I remember is that I will only come back as a human and not a tree or a dog.
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