Pascal’s Wager
In a recent episode of House, a man in a hospital bed, in pain and hours from death, wishes he could just get it over with and go to heaven. Dr. House, of course, tells him that there is no heaven. Dr. Wilson says to House, “why did you do that? You don’t know for sure that there is no afterlife. What harm does it do for this man to have a few hours of hope?”
Eloquently put. And yet… aren’t we all terminally ill, and in pain? Maybe not so much pain, and maybe we have decades left instead of hours, but aren’t we in the same existential position? What harm does it do for us to believe in heaven, or in reincarnation, or something else.
I think this is the wrong question. We are constantly bombarded with messages from advertisers, schools, governments and religions that seek to modify our behavior. The messages range from innocuous to misleading to malign. A lack of critical thinking puts a person at such a disadvantage in life.
I say focus on the critical thinking. If critical thinking leads you to warm fuzzy feelings about an afterlife, good for you. I find it does not. I see multiple belief systems that can’t all be true at the same time, and a lack of evidence from which to judge which belief system is more likely to be true. Overly analytical perhaps, and not very comforting, but the flip side is that being less deluded than most gives me an advantage in the here and now. Your mileage may vary.
Department of Synchronicity: just before posting, I found yet another modern restatement of Pascal’s Wager in an email:
“I would rather live my life as if there is a GOD, and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t, and die to find out there is.”
Is there a podiatrist in the house?
I’ve only been blogging for 4 days, I have maybe half a dozen readers, and one of them really does have Godzilla feet in her closet!
“Actually, I have the Perfect Godzilla’s feet in a box in my closet.”
OK, I’m convinced. Seeing is believing. St. Anselm’s argument is valid.