Bob, you have to try harder.
The old "faith as an insurance policy" argument (of Pascal and others) has rarely convinced, and never, as far as I know, paid off. If it turns out fraudulent, who do we sue? Who has such powerful self-control as can impose on himself a particular faith?
"Another curious argument of Pascal's is that which is known as the argument of the wager ["Pascal's Wager"]. God exists or He does not exist, and we must of necessity lay odds for or against Him.
If I wager for and God is -- infinite gain;
If I wager for and God is not -- no loss.
If I wager against and God is -- infinite loss;
If I wager against and God is not -- neither loss nor gain."
--The Catholic Encyclopaedia "Pascal"
Pascal as a mere boy was a great mathematician and invented the first real mechanical calculator from which, eventually, the computer that has changed all of our lives has involved. I believe he had a nervous breakdown, became hyper-religious, wrote some embarrassingly cowardly philosophy (Pensees) and shivered his way in torment ("I am terrified by the vastness of those empty spaces [the night sky]) to early death (aetat 39). I do not mock his life, but wish that he had remained sane enough to complete his great and needed scientific work. He could have sped us along our way. As it is, he merely confused those pitiful nuns at Port Royal with his "Provincial Letters" and propelled them to their destruction by the church and state.
... the "Provinciales" of Pascal only increased. Port- Royal, having refused to subscribe to the formulary drawn up by the Assembly of the Clergy in 1657, all the petites écoles were successively closed, the novices were driven out from the abbey, and the confessors expelled. But in vain; the doctors, even the Archbishop of Paris, Hardouin de Péréfixe, endeavoured by their learning and their patience to bring the recalcitrants to reason. "They are as pure as angels", said the latter, "but proud as demons." Only a few consented to sign; the more obstinate were finally sent to the country or dispersed in different communities. In 1666 the director, Lemaître de Lacy, was imprisoned in the Bastille.
At length, after interminable negotiations, in 1669, what was called "The Peace of the Church" was signed; Port-Royal became again for some years an intellectual and religious centre, shining on all that was most intelligent and noble in the city and at the Court. But the fire was smouldering beneath the ashes. In 1670 Arnauld was obliged to fly to the Low Countries, and Louis XIV, who had begun to suspect and hate the stubborn Port-Royal community, resolved to subdue them. In 1702 the quarrel broke out anew on the condemnation by the Sorbonne of a celebrated "case of conscience". In 1704 Port-Royal des Champs (Port-Royal of the Fields) was suppressed by a Bull of Clement IX. In 1709 the last twenty-five nuns were expelled by the public authorities. Finally, in 1710, to blot out all traces of the centre of revolt, the buildings of Port-Royal were razed, the site of the chapel turned into a marsh, and even the ashes of the dead were dispersed. Port-Royal was destroyed, but its spirit lived on, especially in the Parliament and the University, and during almost all the eighteenth century France was distracted by the ever-recurring struggle between its heirs and its adversaries. (See JANSENIUS AND JANSENISM.)
-- The Catholic Encyclopaedia "Port-Royal
|
