The Death Wager (III)

The precautionary principle is nonsense, because it fabricates deadly or urgent outcomes based on little or no evidence, and asks us to accept this outcome before taking a decision. The Death Wager is nonsense for the opposite reason. It fabricates a "wonderful" benefit based on no evidence, and asks us to accept this as fact before taking a decision. Many people hate all risks and would rather live without them. Unfortunately for these hypochondriacs, life is made of risks, indeed is moved by them.

So you could, theoretically, die tomorrow, or in a week, or in a year. Why should you feel obligated to believe in an afterlife because of this ? Does not the fragility of life rather demand that we turn to the here and now, and work for the progress of our scientific understanding of the human body, so that we can cure and heal it more effectively ? I know I have a hope in the hands of science, but what hope is there for us in the hands of a cruel and unknowable God ? Even if I had to believe, I'd rather believe in a knowable universe, where problems can be solved, than in an unknowable god, which controls my life and reduces me to an automaton.

Sure, we have a place in the circle of life, we have an instinct of self-preservation and so desire to persist, and so on and so forth. But little notice is made of the fact that belief in "eternal life" strips us of our moral nature. The eternal benefit of salvation in Christianity is achieved not by works, but by belief. Thus the believer is not held morally responsible for his actions. Even the worst criminal or tyrant is saved, if he professes belief in his heart before dying. Since any moral blame one can attribute the criminal is irrelevant compared to the infinite moral weight of salvation, no one can attribute moral blame to any Christian criminal, if his belief is correct.

Personally, I don't believe in death. It is a false word that makes people think of darkness or nothingness. Death cannot be any of these things, indeed it cannot be anything at all. From the point of view of the individual, one cannot experience death, or have one's life limited by it. To say this is as absurd as saying that the universe is temporally limited. So

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