Tenek

Since the original version has been repeatedly attacked, I will attempt to 'update' it, so to speak, to show once and for all how believing in Jesus Christ, Son of God is the best thing to do.

1) If a god exists, either:

a) You do not believe in that god, and:
i) do not believe in any gods, or
ii) believe in another god

or

b) You believe in that god, and
i) follow the teachings of that god, or
ii) do not follow the teachings of that god

2) If no god exists, either:

a) You believe in a god, and:
i) act according to the tenets of a religion, or
ii) do not act according to the tenets of a religion

or

b) You do not believe in a god


Now we examine the cases.

1)a)i) = You have not pleased that particular god, but have not deliberately worked against it. Divine punishment level 1.
1)a)ii) = You have not pleased that particular god, and on top of that, you have done the work of false gods. Divine punishment level 2.

1)b)i) = You have done the work of the true god. Divine reward level 2.
1)b)ii) = You have believe in the correct god, but have not done much of said god's will. Divine reward level 1.

2)a)i) = Whatever your secular actions, good or evil, you have tried to lead people to something devoid of truth. Not particularly nice. Divine punishment/reward 0, but you're probably not helping your fellow men much.

2)a)ii) = You've likely done nothing much at all towards the supernatural. Divine punishment/reward 0.

2)b) See 2)a)ii).

Now everybody wants to come out on top, so to speak. Divine reward level 2 is the best option. However, this now becomes a percentages game:

What are the odds that your religion, out of all the possibilities, is correct?

The entire scenario of a lack of a god deals with consequences far below the level of that with a god. For expediency, I'll ignore it. Shoot me.

Let's try theist_correct_God = 0.000001. One in a million is probably pretty damned good given the number of possible attributes of God.
Atheist_correct_God = 0. However, Atheist_incorrect_God = 0 as well. Theist_incorrect_God, on the other hand, is 0.999999.

So then we have the issue of harsher punishments for the counterproductive. Christianity seems to have different levels of Hell, at least in some denominations. Not to mention Purgatory.

So the eventual question is...

Are you going to take the chance of stepping on the toes of a god who will punish you more harshly for it? Even if you're not very likely to choose the correct one? Even if the difference could be between a thousand years working away your sins, and eternal Hell?





I'm sure as hell not. Life is so much easier when you accept that if the fundies are right, you're fucked and there's not a thing you can do about it... so might as well assume they're wrong and take it from there.

Apologies to those who thought I was going to try to prove once and for all that we should all be Christians, either because they would use it to convert people, or because they wanted to flame me to death for it. :P

Jobar

I think you're about eleven days late with this one, Tenek.

There's another topic in EoG called "The end of Pascal's Wager" (IIRC). If you are interested in seeing a really professional debunking of this classic fallacy, check it out!

Tenek

True, but I was hoping to actually 'crunch the numbers' with it rather than the original two options/two outcomes. I don't see why it doesn't work, just that it doesn't work as Pascal intended.