Does God Exist?
Essay Preview: Does God Exist?
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Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 and was a mathematician, physicist and philosopher who at any early age became interested in judgment and reason. He was three centuries ahead of his time with his thoughts and ideas on the human condition. His theories are as applicable today as they were in the sixteenth century. Issues such as God, faith, truth, and the broken human condition are in the background with modern man today. Pascal believed that human life is made up of contradictions and cannot be defined in rational terms. Pascal stresses the role of the heart in our knowledge of God. In Pensees, Pascal wrote, “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways” (Pascal). Pensees (thought) is a series of reflections that addressed Christianity, proofs for Jesus Christ, and mathematics and reason. Because of Pascals references to the heart people have termed Pascal an early religious existentialist. Pascals epistemology of God, faith, humanity, heart, mathematics and reason can be very effective when we apply it to our lives. Pascal died in 1662 from stomach problems and the last words he spoke were, “may God never abandon me” (Datatourch). Christ was the center of Pascals theology.
Broke people, people who for psychological or emotional reasons have alienated themselves from God and loved ones are in need of God and redemption. Pascals theory understands the human condition as both great and fallen. Man is “great because he is created in Gods image; and wretched, because he is fallen and alienated from God” (Defense of Christianity Ringing True). Basic human nature is corrupt and there is no recovery from this through human effort or natural means. Only the gift of faith in God can bring us out of this corruption. Pascal argued that life is miserable without God, and people use diversions to escape their boredom and misery. Pascal feels only faith in God can bring comfort. Pascal believes a man has to go outside of himself and feels that God is both in the heart by grace and the mind by reason. Pascal uses reason to justify the reasonability of faith in God. Reason and heart can work harmoniously together to gain a true knowledge in receiving Gods grace. Our faith in God allows us to find contentment within ourselves through a personal relationship with Him. We dont have to fall into meaningless darkness when we are promised eternity with our Lord in heaven. We just have to open our hearts to the process. For Pascal the heart is the intuitive mind rather than the geometrical, calculating, reasoning mind. “Unlike the arguments we have been considering, it is not presented as an argument for the truth of religious belief, but for the utility of believing in some version of a monotheistic, Judaic, Christian, or Islamic God” (Cahn 232).
Pascals Wager is the name given to that argument due to Blaise Pascal for believing, or for, the steps to believe in God. Pascal lived in a time of great skepticism toward institutional religion so keep in mind Pascals argument here is for the skeptics. A lot of philosophical minds lacked faith and reason in relation to the existence of God. Pascals wager is betting on God. Pascals approach for believing in the existence of God is from a statistical standpoint. Basically he argues that belief in God is a better bet than not believing. In essence if you chose to believe in God you have everything to gain if you are right and nothing to lose if you are wrong. Someone who chooses not to believe in God has everything to lose if they are wrong and nothing to gain if they are right. He argued that belief in God was essentially a better bet than nonbelief. Someone who chose to believe in God had everything to gain if they were right, but would lose nothing if they were wrong. Someone who does not believe in God has everything to lose if they are wrong and nothing to gain if they are right. So it just simply makes better sense to choose to believe in God. While believing God as only a bet might not be the most mature and deep way of having a belief in God, it is a start, it is something. People think this a low level to get to know God. Pascal only recommended the wager as a starting point for faith. He writes to the skeptic who is convinced by the wager that he must “endeavor then, to convince yourself, not by increase of the proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions” (Reading Selection from Pensees).
William James thinks a persons passions are important too and contends “that when you face an important choice between two appealing options and cannot wait for further evidence, you are justified in believing and acting as