Blaise Pascal’s wager reaches into the hearts of every person, even into the hearts of atheists.
Pascal was a French philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and probability theorist in the 17th century. He argued that if we do not know whether God exists, we should play it safe rather than risk being sorry.
His argument is based on decision theory. Many people play the lottery, so I will use the lottery to explain this theory.
Suppose there are 100 lottery tickets at $1 each and the jackpot is worth $1,000. Is it rational to play? If you add up the earnings and expenses for all of the tickets ($1,000 to $100), then divide by the number of tickets, you find on average that each ticket may net you $9. In comparison, not playing involves zero expense and the payoff would be zero.
Since $9 is preferable to $0, it is rational to play.
There is a 50/50 chance that God does exist. If you bet that he does not exist and you are wrong, you lose and may spend eternity in hell. But if you bet that he does exist and live your life accordingly, you win and may spend eternity in blissfulness.
So if a Christian might enjoy eternal bliss and an atheist might suffer eternal damnation, which would you rather be? How would you like to spend your afterlife?
What will your wager be?
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Blame the puppet master!
Love Christ but not Christians?
Make your children truly wealthy…
How do you treat everyone around you?
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I put my faith and trust in Jesus a long, long time ago and am looking forward to spending an eternity with Him.