YOU BET YOUR LIFE!
It has been said that Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662), claimed to borrow his theological interpretation of the human condition from Saint Augustine; in which, “…Adam's fall from grace resulted in a human nature that is essentially corrupt, and there is no possibility of recovery by natural means or human effort.”[i] This may be the case, but Pascal was merely echoing the biblical understanding of man’s fall from grace, and the resulting predicament that he finds himself in regarding the eternal consequences of that fall. Regardless, these scriptural perspectives had a major impact on how Pascal viewed the world, and this seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist, argued that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God.
It was his infamous philosophic speculation known as Pascal’s Wager that he is perhaps most well-known for though. Conceding that scientific reasoning and empirical analysis could never fully prove the existence of God on their own, he proposed a brilliant challenge for all of unbelieving mankind to thoughtfully consider. He essentially asked people to bet on the existence of God, knowing that there was nothing to lose if it turned out that God did not exist. "If God does actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas they stand to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (eternity in Hell)."ii
His premise was simple; God either exists or he doesn’t, but since it is impossible to know for certain through naturalistic means, Pascal challenged everyone to make a choice to act as if a God either exists or doesn’t exist. Again, he emphasized that the rational choice would be to act as if God does exist because, “…we have nothing to lose if we are wrong, but everything to gain if we are right.”[iii] He knew that this argument would never convince an unbeliever to become a believer, and that salvation could not be gained by reasoning or wagering. Pascal understood that salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus, but thought that this wager might help start the process that would lead to someone making a decision to believe in the existence of God.
This does seem overly simplistic and it removes the spiritual dimension from the faith equation completely, but it can be an effective tool in meeting people where they are. Also, it's important to remember that Pascal's Wager was only a part of an apologetic defense of the Christian faith, not a complete doctrine. The crowd that Pascal hung around with before his conversion were into hunting, partying and especially gambling, in fact, Pascal himself is often credited with inventing the roulette wheel. So it makes sense for him to use the device of a wager to try to convince people, who are already gambling, to take a chance on God. "If you want to make a point to a gambler, put it in the form of a bet. That'll at least get their attention and disturb their indifference."iv
By Pastor Glen Mustian
Works Cited:
[i] Clarke, Desmond, "Blaise Pascal", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015 Edition. <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/pascal/>.[ii] Clarke, Desmond, "Blaise Pascal", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015 Edition. <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/pascal/>.
[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager
[iv] http://sites.saintmarys.edu/~incandel/pascalswager.html
