Pascal's Wager

Pascal's "wager" is a fundamental philosophical argument defending belief in God. Through logical analysis based on a punishment-reward premise, Pascal shows that believing in God is preferable to not believing. The argument is called a "wager" because Pascal phrases it as a sort of bet: the individual has a better chance of being rewarded through belief than through denial. Therefore, Pascals' wager defends belief in God through reason and appeal to basic self-interest rather than through theological or mystical proofs. Yet even though Pascal tries to divorce belief in God from blind faith, his argument rests heavily on Christian theology. Pascal's God is the Biblical God, the results of his wager similar to a heaven-hell duality as proposed by Christianity as well as other monotheistic religions. Through the wager, Pascal is trying to show readers that believing in God is a personal decision, and one that can be...
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