Pascal: A Mathematician Believer
Pascal: A Mathematician Believer
Pascal: A Mathematician Believer
Pascal: A Mathematician Believer
The Wager of Pascal'
The choice of Blaise Pascal (1716-1789)
Pascal as a mathematician and philosopher, admitting the impossibility of establishing a proof for the existence of God, chose to believe in God. He undertook the task to justify his belief by the means disposed to him as a mathematician. He underlined the total absence of a proof, for or against the existence of God. He resorted to faith, necessitated by the incapacity of reasoning, as a criterion of belief.
He rejected the metaphysical illusory proofs: Themetaphysical proofs of (the existence) of God are so much removed away from the reasoning of men, and if implicated, they have little impact. If this serves for some individuals, this does not serve but only during the instant they see these demonstrations. But one hour later, they apprehend that they were misled.' (1)
Apologetic to Christianity
Blaise Pascal, an apologetic to Christianity, considers, when applying the law of probability, that the individual has the choice between two options of one alternative: to believe or not to believe in the existence of God; motivating thus the individual to believe. This logic is known as the Wager of Pascal'. Although Pascal believed in the existence of God, as a scientist, he did not identify the choice as the reason of being' for man.
Pascal uses a persuasion-dissuasion method by quantifying gain and loss in terms of the probability of presumed consequences of a choice between belief and disbelief.
The Wager of Pascal
We ought to precise here that the Wager' is founded on the religious assumptions that there shall be a day of resurrection and a day of judgment and that there shall be consequences of men's belief or disbelief administrated by reward and punishment.
His argument is founded on the Gospel. If we do not believe in the Gospel then the Wager' is useless. Anyone who does not believe in the existence of God is unaware of this Wager and rejects it. He is not subject to the Wager. The Wager does not apply to polytheists. The Wager is an incitation for the indecisive individual between belief and disbelief, who is aware of Christianity or any other monotheistic religion but is hesitant to take his choice. The Wager is founded, according to Pascal, on the infinite distance that exists between certitude of what we lose and the incertitude of what we gain.' (2)
Pascal precise the impossibility of demonstrating theExistence of God by reason but have to resort to faith:
We can examine this point and say: God is, or He is not." But towards which side should we incline? Reason can decide nothing here.' (3)
And he continues his argument:
It is the heart that feels God and not reason: This is what faith is. God is felt by the heart and not by reason.' (4)
Pascal's Wager is demonstrated in the following manner:
There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see what interests you lose. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to avoid, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must by necessity choose... And your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. That is very well. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much. Let us see.
Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play (since custom and inspiration and the consequences can have influence on the choice itself you are under the necessity of playing), and you will be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your life to gain three at a game, where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But there is an eternity of life and happiness.' (5)
Pascal in his model of the choice indicates necessity' and obligation' to make the choice between the two options. (6)
The Wager is insufficient as an Explanation
In our perspective in of the choice we share the idea of obligation' of the choice in the Pascalian sense of the choice but it must be mentioned that justification' for such obligation' resides in the confrontation of the individual with the religious doctrine. The gain and loss play a role (minimal or maximal, depending on the acceptance of such presumption by the individual) in the final decision, and hence we do not see the necessity of making a spontaneous choice by faith.
Man is forced to confront the enigma of the universe and has a life-span engaging all his faculties of thinking. Whether his choice is made by faith or reason, equally accepted, man's decision is the result of his confrontation with the enigmatic presence of the universe. The Wager is entirely based on the presumed consequences of the choice as persuasive and dissuasive factors.
In our notion of the choice (reference to our article on the choice between belief and disbelief) Pascal's Wager does not consist a part of the real confrontation with the real universe where the decision of the choice is imminent.
Pascal admits further
It is incomprehensible that God is and it is incomprehensible that God is not; that the soul is with the body, and that we have no soul; that the world is created and that it is not created.' (7)
He adds, But we do not know neither the existence nor the nature of God, for He has no dimension or limits.'(8).
Finally Pascal advances the foundation grounds for his Wager namely the Christian faith. He concludes: It is just impossible but superfluous to know God without Jesus Christ.' (9)
The Matrix of Pascal's Wager' can be presented in the following manner:
God exists Go does not exist
Wager for God All gain Status quo
Wager against God All loss Status quo
This is a matrix used in Game Theory' where the player weighs the odds in his final decision and decides to choose one option in preference to the other. But in the Wager the argument is based on presumptive premises and not on factual empirical evidence and therefore, the decision is conjectural.
Pascal's Wager persuades a potential believer to take a decision, while the notion of the choice as a 'purpose for man's existence' assumes that the choice is inevitable and it is the reason of being' for Man. (10)
_____
1. Blaise Pascal, Pense, Bordas, Paris, 1990
p. 156.
2. Ibid., p. 463.
3. Ibid., p. 460
4. Ibid., p. 467.
5. Ibid., p. 461-462.
6. Ibid., p. 461.
7. Ibid., p. 432.
8. Ibid., p. 459.
9. Ibid., p. 431.
10. Ref. our Article on 'The purpose for Man's Existence'.
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