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The Death Wager (I)

© Francois Tremblay

Obviously this kind of calculation is not the desired outcome of Christians using the Wager as an argument. They want you to see their sect as the only true sect, and to stop thinking when you reach the conclusion "I should believe in God".

Of course, Pascal's Wager has one major problem, in that it treats the bet as if there were only two choices. But there are thousands of religions and tens of thousands of sects and cults, each with their own conception of what it means to believe and worship. To choose a specific sect of Christianity is to exclude all others Christian sects, and all other religions. Same for the refusal to follow any religion.

In matters of religion, choice is inevitable, and offending others is also inevitable. Atheists offend Christians, liberal Christians offend fundamentalist Christians, Pentecostals offend Catholics, and Jehovah's Witnesses offend everyone who likes to sleep late. And only two people are going to Heaven, the only two people who hold the exact correct theological position that God likes. Unfortunately, their names will not be released until the end-times. Sorry, Christians ! Keep those prayer circles going, though.

This is not, however, quite the topic I want to talk about. I want to talk about a cousin, which I call the Death Wager. I will examine this on the next part.

What is your opinion on the subject ? If you have issues you'd like to see featured here, email me. Don't hesitate to post on the message board - go back to the main page and scroll below the articles list, or if no thread on the subject is available yet, click on "Start a discussion on this article". Happy thinking !