From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Mon Dec 07 1998 - 05:10:36 MST
On Mon, Dec 07, 1998 at 09:45:50AM -0000, Samael wrote:
> The main problem I always had with Pascal's wager is that is impossible (for
> me at least) to suddenly start believing in something, even if I want to.
That's not the real problem with Pascal's Wager. The real objection in
philosophical terms (where 'belief' is mutable) is the 'many gods'
objection; so our hero Blaise decides to believe in God, so that he'll go
to heaven -- but how does he know he's believing in the _correct_ God, when
we can conceive of an infinite number of different possible types of deity?
"Sorry guys, the Zoroastrians were right, you're all going to burn in
gehenna forever."
Somehow, Pascal's Wager has never made sense to me. But then, I'm not a
gambler.
-- Charlie
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