Pascal's Wager

Do you know Pascal's Wager?

Either God exists, or God doesn't exist. Either you choose to believe in God, or choose not to believe in God. Those are the 4 pieces of the wager. You could make a square that looked like this:

...........GOD EXISTS....................GOD DOES NOT EXIST.............
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-
Belief
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-
Non-Belief
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(it's harder to make a square on Blogger than I thought)

Now, within this matrix there are 4 options:

1)Belief / God exists
2)Belief / God does not exist
3)non-belief / God exists
4)non-belief / God does not exist

Here is a brief description of each one:

1) You choose to believe in God and he does in fact exist. Pascal would say that the reward is 'heaven' but also, tangible benefits here and now.

2) You choose to beileve in God but he doesn't actually exist. Pascal would say nothing is lost. If there is no God, there is no afterlife, and your belief in God is a null set.

3) You choose not to believe in God and He does exist. Pascal would say that your 'punishment' would be 'hell' for non-belief.

4) You choose not to believe in God and He does not exist. Again, null set. Makes no difference.

The point of the wager is that your 'best bet' is to believe in God.

.....................GOD EXISTS....................GOD DOES NOT EXIST.............
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-
Belief.........You Win - Heaven..........Null Set....makes no difference
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Non-Belief...You lose - Hell.................null set...Makes no difference
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OK, that is our brief philosophy lesson for today. I'm not going to get into the whole heaven and hell issue right now.

Now take Pascal's Wager and change it from belief in God, to belief that you can live an extraordinary life. Or perhaps that you can live a simple life, or a godly life, or a subversive life, or a life like Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mother Teresa, or Stephan Bauman, or Steve Garber.

Here are the results (Fill in Steve Garber with your own personal choice):

1) You believe that you can live a life like Steve Garber and in fact, you can't. Embarrassment might come, perhaps a feeling of failure, but you wil be dead so it doesn't particularly matter to you.

2) You believe that you can't live a life like Steve Garber and in you are right. Nothing happens, you continue your job in your cubicle, you have a nice house in the suburbs, and die very comfortable and bored.

3) You believe that you can't live a life like Steve Garber and you are wrong. You missed your chance and see other people following their passions and fulfilling their calling in God's Kingdom. You experience sadness and regret, knowing that you never had the guts to do anything risky.

4) You believe that you can live a life like Steve Garber, and you're right! You live a life of purpose, fueled by your God-given gifts and passions and not only you, but countless numbers of others are better for it.

So, your best bet is to believe that it is possible to live an extraordinary life. (And of course I mean extraordinary in terms of God's kingdom, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.)