What Religion Do You Follow?

[sapphi_snake]

The_vagabond7 said:

You're assuming that you're only wrong about whether or not a deity exists. Pascals wager doesn't work because it is weighted as a 50/50 chance, either you're right about god or there isn't one. But it leaves out that there are thousands of gods and thousands of beliefs, and even within a single religious order there are numerous disagreements about how that specific god or gods want to be worshipped.

If you were simply going to make a wager, the pragmatic approach would be you should either go all in figuring that it's unlikely you'll pick the correct god AND the correct method of pleasing him, and instead just live your life hoping that if you're wrong, the god that does exist is the kind that will judge you for your deeds and not judge you for arbitrary demands. So you win even if you don't believe in him. Or go the other direction and hedge your bet by picking whoever is the most unmerciful, hateful, vicious, punitive and punishing god, and suck up to his ass like there is no tomorrow. Because if there is a loving god that isn't arbitrary in his demands (don't be gay, pray seven times a day facing mecca, believe in me alone), but is genuinely loving then you're good either way. But if the actual god is wrathful and unmerciful, then you need to be on his good side or else there is going to be torments worse than hellfire in your future.

I obviously go with the first option, seems more rewarding than living a life sucking up to Cthulu, or ancient gods to appease them. But even then it's not because it's statistically smart, it's because there isn't any good reason to believe in any of these elder gods of ancient tribes.

 

This is a very interesting perspective, which many Christians who love to use Pascals' wager ignore.