Pascal's Wager

Pascal’s Wager was developed from Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a physicist, philosopher and mathematician. He was also a deeply religious man, follower of the Jansenist movement and a French Christian sect, which emphasized personal holiness and especially predestination. Pascal put up a philosophical defense of faith as a fundamental mean of understanding the universe. (Massimo) He was interested in the question of whether it could be rational to believe in God, even if you think …

…Elliott. Core Questions in Philosophy: Pascal and Irrationality. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1995. “Theism.” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. CD-ROM. 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. Alan Hajek. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab Center for the Study of Language and Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/ Massimo Pigliucci. A refutation of Pascal’s Wager and why skeptics should be non- theists. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/skeptic/Essays/refutation_of_pascal.html