From:
david.j.worrell@gmail.com
Perhaps it would be good to elaborate just a little.
I think Pascal's wager is downright dumb. Here's why.
There's not merely ONE possibility for what may happen after death.
If you want to entertain that idea, there are many possibilities.
Will I find myself in Tibetan Buddhist Bardo going through a 72
hour dream sequence? Will I be floating confused and not knowing
what to do until my last "programming" kicks in, as Scientologists
might claim? Will I go before "God", as Pascal wanted to wager?
Will I suddenly be in some "elf realm" with sadistic creatures
building fires under my balls, or go straight to Satan no matter
what I believed since I was "a bad boy"? Will I find myself facing
Thor with his hammer? There could be a hundred other possibilities
and no one knows. So it's NOT really a coin flip. The possibilities
are many and are unknown.
Thus, the coin flip is meaningless.
The only thing you actually know is that all of the billion
people who lived before you dropped dead and you know nothing
further about what happened to ANY of them if anything did,
which is doubtful. And that's one thing you KNOW.
Therefore the coin-flip is meaningless. (But if you're faced with
some psychopath telling you to call it then yeah, call it heads. :) )
Moreover, and this to me is an even better point. After I die,
if I DO somehow find myself still alive, then... I'm still alive. :)
And THEN I'll still make whatever choices I'm offered just as I
do now and just as I've always done. Everything I know about
the world leads me to doubt that I'll somehow 'still be alive'
after death, so I think there's just about a zero chance of that
happening, but if it does happen I'm FINE with it because it
would be nothing different than I've ever done: to be alive
and to choose from the real options I have available.
So once again, the wager is meaningless. :)
Last point, perhaps stronger still. If I live a sincere life with
integrity and do my best, and don't go out of my way to harm others
then even if there was a 'God' that wanted to 'judge me' after
death, what do I care? I did the best I could with the knowledge
I had. Is it my fault 'God' left me some 'holy books' that were
utterly unconvincing to my razor sharp mind? :) What 'God' would
determine that I was so very terrible among all others here?
I'd have little to fear because I lived the best life I could
based on all the information I truly had.
So once again, I don't give a tiny shit about any coin-flip "wager". :)
Heh.
.
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