Men of faith wager their lives on the existence of an afterlife. Is that a good gamble?
“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”.
1 Corinthians 2:9
There is an old philosophy from Blaise Pascal that acts as a fail-safe for our faith. It’s called “Pascal’s Wager”. It states that what you believe about the afterlife is a gamble, because you cannot truly know what will happen after death. The main point is that one should behave as if God exists, because the possibility of eternal punishment outweighs any benefit of atheism.
So the atheist wagers that there will be no God, and no afterlife.
The Believer wagers that there is a God and as a result there is an afterlife.
Both cannot prove what they think in the present moment, that is why it is a wager. Pascal argues that The Christian’s wager is better or safer than the atheist’s.
If the atheist is wrong, he goes to hell. If he is right, he goes to non-existence. His wager is a win-lose scenario, a 50/50 chance of his gamble working out in his favor.
For the Christian: if he is right, he goes to heaven and eternal pleasure. If he is wrong, he goes to non-existence.
His belief is a win-win scenario, a 100% chance of the afterlife working out in his favor, because there is nothing wrong with non-existence. In fact, some might find the idea of non-existence more pleasing than the idea of heaven. This is a result of the way that weak people in the Church have decided to describe heaven. In reality, men don’t want to sit around singing “Days of Elijah” on an endless loop for all time. That is how the Church describes heaven. That is one reason why men don’t find the idea of heaven very motivating. Some may even leave the Church because of this.
This entire wager is a buffer for us as weak men. We will doubt our faith, doubt God, doubt the afterlife, but this wager can be a tool that we use to combat the doubt. I know there are some pusillanimous people who will freak out when you try to use anything besides mindless “faith” and emotional “belief” when it comes to your motivation to do what is right. Many days you will have to conjure up some sort of external motivation.
Hell deters us from evil. Pascal’s wager deters us from leaving the faith. Use this tool to maintain the faith when you are particularly weak.
Mantra
Faith has no downside.
Application
Use the wager to beat your doubts. When your emotions begin to fail you, use your rational mind to maintain the faith. Pascal’s wager is designed to appeal to the rational mind. Use the wager to remind yourself that your “gamble” about the afterlife has the best possible outcome.
It is in your best interest to behave as if there is a God. No immediate pleasure is worth eternal punishment. Always be mindful of that.
Conduct yourselves like Men.
Read On
