This is Pascal's Wager - gamble that God exists and act like you believe, just in case.
The problem, of course, is that an omniscient God would know you are just faking it to fake him out, and probably be pretty pissed about it.
Which leads to questions about choice. If I choose to believe, there is inevitably some element of this hedge and the health of my immortal soul hangs on it. So either I believe in a perfect way, with no personal choice involved, in which case I'm 'saved' (doesn't seem to be much point to any of that), or I believe imperfectly, hedging my bets, and hope god has a sense of humor (the only position that involves actual choice), or I don't believe in a perfect way, again not something that involves choice, it's just how I am. I suppose there is a fourth possibility, of believing but choosing not to believe, but that one leads to strange contradictions of its own.
So if I'm relying on god to have a sense of humor, why bother with all the bowing and scraping, one would suppose that an infinite being would have a rather broad sense of humor.
Thankfully all these sticky wickets don't take up a lot of my time, although it's sometimes fun to do a little navel gazing.
Beats watching The Factor (I think that's what O'Rielly calls his show).
ARS |