Blaise Pascal, a child prodigy who entered this world in France in 1623, accomplished a great deal in his relatively short life before he died just a couple of months past his 39th birthday in 1662. The impact he made on mathematics, physics, religion and philosophy lasts today; one of the most enduring is even named after him. Pascal’s Wager, as it’s known, has been used for centuries as a reason to believe in God. In its essence, Pascal’s Wager weighs the consequences of both believe in God and non-belief in God: if you believe in God and He doesn’t exist, no biggie; you just die at the end of your life. If you believe and He DOES exist, heaven awaits (assuming you qualify). If, on the other hand, you DON’T believe in God and he doesn’t exist, you still just die, but if you don’t believe and he DOES exist, you’re hosed: you spend eternity regretting your paucity of faith by roasting in hell (or so said Pascal).
Interestingly, there’s a similar argument made in the Bible book of Acts. Seems the apostle Peter and friends had been arrested for evangelizing; specifically they were talking in the town square about Jesus being the Messiah and how the Jewish religious leaders were responsible for having the Romans execute him. Said religious leaders (Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin) were understandably annoyed, and had Peter and his associates arrested. One of the Pharisees, a man named Gamaliel, cautioned his colleagues against doing anything rash; he said that since Jesus was gone, likely the sect that had followed him would fade away, using situations of men named Theudas and Judas the Galilean to support his point. Theudas was killed and his band dispersed; the same thing happened to Judas. But then he said “Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38-39) Similar enough that it makes me wonder if that’s where Pascal got an inkling of his Wager.
Pascal’s Wager (or a minor variation of it) has been brought up several times by Scott, a good friend of mine who continues to attempt to get me to accept God and thus save my soul so I don’t go to hell for all eternity. And while I appreciate his concern, I have no interest in either hell OR heaven, in spite of the fact that it’s likely a good number of my friends will end up in the former (if I accept its existence in the first place). Nope, I plan on going to Dog Heaven. If I can’t spend eternity with Calvin, Hank, Roxy and the rest, I ain’t goin.’
Back to my friend Scott and Monsieur Pascal’s Wager. Note that while it’s frequently used to convince people that God exists, it actually does nothing of the sort. While the logic of the Wager is accurate, it offers no support for the basic premise of the existence of a Supreme Being; it just lays out the reasons why one would do well to believe. And even if that were to be convincing enough, the one convinced could just as easily decide that Allah, or even Thor or Zeus should thus be worshiped, not necessarily Yahweh (or Jehovah). That aside, let’s look at the question itself.
Assuming God can read our hearts (the Bible is clear on that point: nothing is hidden from God), then what would it say to Him if I were to pretend to believe in Him when I don’t, just to save my (worthless) hide from hell? Wouldn’t that be a totally selfish reason? And if so, how would that be pleasing to God? Isn’t it very much like living an honest life, not because you believe it to be the right thing to do, but out of fear of getting caught? Granted, the law as humans administer it would never prosecute you, but that’s not the point; God can read your heart and will hold you accountable for what you think! Remember Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying that “the law of Moses said to never commit adultery, but I say to you that even lusting after your neighbor’s wife is the same as committing adultery.” (Probably shouldn’t be in quotes, as I’m sure I’m paraphrasing, plus there’s no way to know what Jesus really said anyway, but that’s another blog entry!) In other words, God judges, not just our actions, but our intentions as well.
Hoo boy.
