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Analysis Of Pascal's Argument For Belief In God

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Pascal makes the argument for the belief in God through the use of Decision Theory. He states that there are two options of belief and two possible realities, creating the four combinations: you believe in God and God exists, you believe in God and God doesn’t exist, you don’t believe in God and God exists, and you don’t believe in God and God doesn’t exist. Next Pascal assigns predicted measures of gain or lose for each combination, as if it is proven true. Here he reasons that If a person truly believed in God and God does exist, they will be rewarded infinitely, furthermore he says that if they believe and God doesn’t exist they lose nothing On the Other hand he says that a person doesn 't believe in God and God exists they stand to lose, and if they don’t believe and God doesn’t exist they neither lose nor gain. Through these predicted measures of gain and lose Pascal proves that choosing to believe is not only the most appealing option but the only rational choice.

If you grant this argument as valid, and are consequentially moved to choose to believe in God through reason, you are now meet with the obstacle of convincing yourself to believe. Pascal says that in this case you should not try to convince yourself by trying to further prove God’s existence, but instead you should observe those who have …show more content…

Similarly, it would also be absurd to say that pretending to believe would cause someone, who previously could not convince themselves to believe, to believe. Therefore, simply choosing to believe in God could not possible lead one to truly believe in God. So, an individual who cites Pascal’s Wager to justify a belief in God does not truly believe in God, and if they do not truly believe in God, they will not stand to gain infinitely if God does exist. This completely removes the only reasonable option from Pascal’s

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