The wager on God by Blaise Pascal

In his famous work Pensées, philosopher Blaise Pascal argues that genuine belief in God must extend beyond mere intellectual assent to include a deep affective dimension. This paper dissects Pascal's unique religious epistemology, revealing how his acceptance of Cartesian certainty as the benchmark for knowledge leads him to a form of global skepticism about religious belief. While Pascal contends that most religious beliefs do not meet the contemporary standards to be considered justified true beliefs (i.e. knowledge), he maintains they can still be justified through other means. Pascal's skepticism about the demonstrability of religious truths leads him to propose his famous Wager - that given the enormous potential gain and limited downside, the most rational course is to bet one's life on God. However, this paper pushes back on several key aspects of Pascal's epistemology: 1. It questions whether theism and atheism truly stand in the epistemic stalemate Pascal assumes as motivation for his Wager. 2. It challenges Pascal's view that uncertainty dooms all religious reasoning, arguing philosophical arguments can and do positively influence belief in God. 3. More fundamentally, it contests Pascal's acceptance of Cartesian certainty as the criterion for knowledge. Ultimately, the paper acknowledges the merits of Pascal's emphasis on the affective component of faith while critiquing the radically skeptical conclusions to which his epistemology leads him. It suggests a more moderate view in which reason, prudence, and "reasons of the heart" work together to justify religious belief.

University of Toronto Quarterly, 2015

Scottish Journal of Theology, 1972

Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies, 2016

The paper critically examines and refutes some of the standard arguments against Pascal's Wager, particularly, the "Many Gods Objection". The paper argues that Pascal's philosophical and theological opponents proceed far too quickly in dismissing his argument as implausible. Their determined attempts to tear down Pascal's Wager have caused them to miss its power and force. While the Wager may not be sound for today's multi culturally sophisticated audience, the Wager is quite cogent relative to Pascal's time, when theism and agnosticism were the only genuine possibilities. Thus, the paper concludes that Pascal's Wager is less vulnerable than most detractors seem to think.

Koers, 2023

Pascal's Wager is probably the most analysed apologetic argument in the history of apologetics. What has often been the case, however, is that this piece of Pascal's Pensées has often been misinterpreted and taken out of the Pascal's total apologetic work. For that reason, the Wager has been misappropriated and has undergone a battery of misplaced criticism. Taken in its proper context, the Wager is a beautiful vindication of the Christian faith, cleverly constructed to make the sceptic re-think his position and contemplate the importance of the Christian faith. Much confusion exists about the placement of this particular Pensées, and where it is situated in his overall apology (Pensées 418) lends itself to the challenge of what has become "the Many Gods Objection." For that reason, I would suggest that Pascal's Wager belongs at the very beginning of his Pensées, where the rest of the Pensées are an explanation for the reason Christianity is the most attractive belief. Postmodern philosophers have re-appropriated the Wager and made it fit their own philosophical and theological presuppositions playing in the hands of the "Many-Gods-Objection." This paper describes the beauty of Pascal's Wager in its proper context and expresses the erroneous postmodern appropriation of the Wager.

2018

Master's Thesis (2018). I argue that there is a tension in the Pensées between, on the one hand, Pascal’s attempt to authenticate Scripture with proofs based on miracles and Old Testament prophecies and, on the other hand, his use of 1 Cor 1–3 in his rejection of the principles of knowledge espoused by some of his contemporaries, like Descartes and Spinoza. I conclude by reflecting on the fragility of the human situation with respect to divine revelation, and the requirement that one must love and submit in order to grasp the truth.

In this paper I discuss the work of Blaise Pascal in mathematics, physics, engineering , and philosophy as well as his Christian faith.

Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 2023

You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief, and ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness (abêtira). 2 The well-known lines from Pascal's much-discussed fragment "infini rien" (i.e. what is discussed as his "wager" 3) have been much commented on. In this context, the keyword self-deception appears surprisingly often. More precisely, we can distinguish at least two contexts in which it occurs: A first way of referring these lines to issues of self-deception is reproachful. We find it in commentators who think that Pascal is describing an epistemically vicious path to faith which comes down to a "self-inflicted brainwashing" 4 or, as said, to 1 I thank two anonymous readers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the essay 2 I number the fragments according to the Lafuma edition (Blaise PASCAL, Pensées, Éd. par Louis LAFUMA, Paris 1951), hence the preceding "L" (e.g. L418 for this fragment). The English text follows the easily available http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/Pascal/Pensees_English.pdf. ("[A]pprenez de ceux, etc. qui ont été liés comme vous et qui parient maintenant tout leur bien. Ce sont gens qui savent ce chemin que vous voudriez suivre et guéris d'un mal dont vous voulez guérir; suivez la manière par où ils ont commencé. C'est en faisant tout comme s'ils croyaient, en prenant de l'eau bénite, en faisant dire des messes, etc. Naturellement même cela vous fera croire et vous abêtira.", L418).

St open, 2023

The God of faith and (or) the God of the philosophers in the light of the conversion of Blaise Pascal Aim: To discuss the relationship between God as understood in philosophy and God as understood by the Christian faith in the light of the conversion of the scientist Blaise Pascal. Methods: We offered an explanation of the philosopheme attributable to Blaise Pascal, and then examined the meaning of the phrase God of the philosophers, with special attention to Plato's and Aristotle's theology, and then assessed the prominent features of the Christian God. The Hellenistic environment in which early Christianity spread and its influence on early Christian theology were analysed, with special emphasis on the term logos. Results: Blaise Pascal's Christian faith was not in accordance with Catholic Church, although Pascal considered himself a Catholic. We demonstrated that term God of philosophers is ambiguous term, i.e. what that God is. It appears that most probably God of philosophers is god of Aristotle or Plato because these two philosophers had the biggest impact on the evolution of natural theology. The God of philosophers is more like an impersonal concept than a person like God of faith. We presented the essential features of the Christian God: the doctrine of the Trinity, God's creation, God's personality and God's incarnation, and discussed on the different understandings of the term logos, and its importance. For us, the term logos served as a point of contact between the philosophical and the Christian understanding of God. Conclusion: Christianity is a faith based on reason, i.e. in Christian God can be known through reason and not just by faith. We tried to go beyond Pascal's radical distinction between the God of faith and the God of the philosophers, namely through the lens of the philosophical term logos and show the there is no radical difference between the God of faith and God of philosophers.