A Wager On God's Existence

I've sitting after class with nothing to do and I feel like blogging so here I am. I was thinking the other day about the idea of believing in God. Well, I believe in God but I'm not going to go into the topic of proving whether God exists or not. It's just way too long and and I'm too lazy to start on something that philosophers and many other people having been dedating upon for aeons.

Now think about it, although there are many signs pointing to the existence of God, there are still people who do and don't believe in the existence of one. So which side should you hop on to? Let me put it this way, seen here in an episode of South Park.

Kyle (barges through the door):(in a franctic voice) "Mom, Dad, Am I going to hell?"

Kyle's Mom: Why? (in a stern voice) What did you do Kyle?

......

Mom: ".... us Jews don't believe in hell."

Kyle: "We dont?! But what if we're wrong?"

Mom: "Well... Kyle..... they could be wrong too."

Kyle: "Yeah, but they're wrong, no big deal. If we're wrong, we burn in hell!"

Kyle's baby brother, Ike: "Oh no!"



Makes sense doesn't it? If you believe in God but he doesn't exist, no big deal, you've lose nothing. But if he does.. bad mistake. This argument is also called Pascal's Wager, brought forth by the 17th century mathematician, Blaise Pascal, considered by many to be the father of modern probablity theory. He decided to sort everything out through probablities and outcomes. You can read up more on at this site.

"Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.” [Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Infini-Rien]

So it makes more sense to believe in God right? To put it simply, you've got nothing to lose by believing in the existence of God. It's like buying the lottery for free with the odds at a 50% chance of winning. If you win, you win everything, if you lose, you lose nothing. Dang, I'd be willing to play that lottery anytime. Any guy who's gambled will also tell you the same thing.

Now I'm going a bit off topic here but I just thought I'd talk about this. I don't like the idea of forcing people to believe in God or go to hell because I believe that's not the way God intended you to go around the share the good news. And forcing people to believe something out of fear isn't going make them geninuely believe in it.

I prefer to put it this way, that people should believe in God simply because they need one. Just look around you in the world today and if you tell me that nothing's wrong, you must be blind. War, senseless violence, innocent people dying, bad singing on Thursdays at 8pm, the list goes on. The world's on the highway to self-destruction. It's apparent that something's wrong and that we're lacking something.

Here's another point, if you look at it in a similiar way to Pascals' Wager, those who believe in God will always have an advantage over those who don't. Those who believe in God will have someone to fall upon when times get troubled and someone to help them get through it. If you don't believe in God, you only have yourself to get by all the crap that everyone experiences in a lifetime. Weighing out the rewards, believing in God gives you something positive in your life, while the other choice offers nothing.

Put this together with Pascal's Wager and it makes even more sense to believe in God. For not only do you get an eternity of life and happiness in the future, you enhance your life now! I never knew of a better deal than that.

Well it's up to each one to make their own choice. No one can make that choice except you. Anyway, I'll end off with these 2 meaningful verses from the Bible.

John 3:16-17 -- "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

John 10:10 -- "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."