What is Pascal’s Wager? | GotQuestions.org

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Hi there, many others like you have asked, what is Pascal's wager?

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Let's find out shall we? You can also discover more on gotquestions .org and here is your answer.

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Pascal's wager is named after 17th century French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.

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One of Pascal's most famous works published posthumously in 1670 and it's in this work we find

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Pascal's wager. The gist of the wager is that, according to Pascal, one cannot come to the knowledge of God's existence through reason alone.

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So the wise thing to do is to live your life as if God does exist, because such a life has everything to gain and nothing to lose.

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If on the other hand, we live as though God doesn't exist, and he really does, we have gained hell and punishment and lose heaven and bliss.

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Now there have been criticisms over the years from various camps. One critique says there is no reason to limit the choices to the

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Christian God over any other God. Still yet, atheist Richard Dawkins postulated the possibility of a

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God that might reward honest disbelief and punish blind or feigned faith.

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What should concern us is whether or not Pascal's wager can be squared with scripture, and it fails on a number of counts.

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First and foremost, it doesn't take into account the Apostle Paul's argument that the knowledge of God is evident to all, so that we are without excuse.

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Reason alone can bring us to the knowledge of God's existence, albeit incomplete, and render us all without excuse before God's judgment.

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Second, there is no mention of the cost involved in following Jesus. Following Jesus brings with it the hatred of the world.

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Pascal's wager makes no mention of any of this. As such, it reduces faith in Christ to mere credulity.

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Third, it completely misrepresents the depravity of human nature. The natural man cannot be persuaded to a saving faith by a cost -benefit analysis.

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Faith is a result of being born again, and that is a divine work of the Holy Spirit. The sign of true saving faith is the fruit it produces.

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Paul makes the argument that the natural man cannot understand the things of God. Pascal's wager makes no mention of the necessary preliminary work of the

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Spirit to come to the knowledge of saving faith. Fourth and finally, as an apologetic evangelistic tool, the wager seems focused on a risk -reward outlook.

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Jesus labeled obedience as evidence of a love for Christ. According to Pascal's wager, one is choosing to believe and obey

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God on the basis of receiving heaven as a reward. If our obedience is primarily motivated by the reward of heaven and avoidance of hell, then it's just a means of achieving our own desires, rather than a heart expressing faith and obedience out of love of Christ.

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In conclusion, Pascal's wager, while an interesting piece of philosophical thought, should have no place in a

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Christian's evangelistic and apologetic repertoire. Christians are to share and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone is the power of God, for salvation to everyone who believes.

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Alright, that answers your question, what is Pascal's wager? On our website, gotquestions .org,

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you'll find an in -depth article with citations and resource suggestions. If this helped you as much as it did others, like this video and subscribe to the

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GotQuestions channel. Meanwhile, if you'd like to study more, as always, just keep asking.