Am I the only atheist who finds Pascal's Wager compelling?

Yes.

The issue with Pascal's Wager is that it has a few premises that are simply not correct.

First it falsely assumes there is only one religious choice to make - whether to believe in God or not. Since you could believe in Jehovah, Allah, Krishna, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, clearly this assumption is wrong. Most religions will tell us that choosing the wrong religion is a path to hell as surely as choosing none.

Second it assumes that the cost of believing in God is nothing. Again this is patently untrue. If I were to follow Pascal's wager and choose to believe in God, let's say I chose Allah to believe in. I would have to give up beer and bacon - rather a significant cost.

Finally it makes God out to be either incredibly stupid or incredibly shallow (actually religion in general does this - Pascal simply accepts the concept). Is God really fooled by someone with no faith in their heart who goes along to church on the off chance that religion is correct. Or is God so shallow as to only reward good deeds if they are done solely in the interest of sucking up to God (and indeed would punish eternally someone who does good things simply because that is the right thing to do)?

Pascal's Wager rather than giving a compelling case for being religious actually highlights the massive inconsistencies of religion in general.

Don't get me wrong, I do not have a belief in God however . . .

IF, by some strange chance there is a god and IF He is not bad tempered enough to condemn anyone who guesses the details wrong, then maybe it could be worthwhile to declare now and then:

"OK God, maybe you exist and if so, Hello!"

It costs very little and MIGHT improve things a little in the afterlife,

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YAHOO have totally screwed this up. I typed all this into the details box, but it ended up as a new answer.

Sorry to everyone who gave good answers - without these comments, my question does not make much sense!

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Anyway --- Happy April Fools Day Everyone!

That is what it was meant to be - compelling.

But there are severe problems with Pascal's Wager.

Mainly, we can’t change what we believe merely because we “want”. I could promise undying devotion to God and pray half of every day, but that would not change my beliefs.

If I was wrong and a God actually existed, He would know that I am faking it.

Also, to be safe, a person would need to worship all of the various gods. There are far too many except to apply a moment’s worship to each per day, and each deity would know that I worshipped the others.

It is far more likely that magic in any form does not exist.

Many atheists find Pascal's Wager compelling. That's why I tell Pascal's Wager to atheists all the time to win them over to Jesus.

One time an atheist gang at school (when I was in collage because I am an adult) threatened to beat me up and steal my girlfriend if I couldn't prove that God was real.

I asked them "Well what if you're wrong?" It made them think for a minute. While they were distracted my girlfriend and I ran away.

The atheists never forgot it though, and eventually they all came to Christ and are serving Jesus to this day.

You're probably the only human that finds Pascal's Wager compelling.

Even most theists realize it's the weakest possible argument for religion, and they use it only when everything else has failed.

This is the last ditch argument once it became illegal to kill atheists.

Probably.

Pascal's Wager was devised for people who only saw two apparent options - living a devout Christian life, or not living a devout Christian life.

It's not very effective for someone who perceives other options.

Which, in modern times, means it's primarily effective only with Christians (mainly lackadaisical Christians).

You seem to be in the minority.

I find Pascal's Wager is a rather weak argument for skeptics:

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 (heaven);

If I wager for and God is not -- no loss.

If I wager against and God is -- infinite loss (hell);

If I wager against and God is not -- neither loss nor gain.

Wisdom, therefore, counsels me to make the wager which insures my winning all or, at worst losing nothing.

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If you believe in God only as a bet then you obviously do not have a deep, mature, or adequate faith. But it is something, it is a start.

From a Catholic viewpoint, it gives God the opportunity to start using His transforming grace in the life of the new believer.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11511a.htm

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologet...

With love in Christ.

You obviously cannot be an atheist then!

The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!

So atheism is not a conscious decision or a belief but a realisation!

The first person to produce a single tiny little piece of verifiable evidence for any god will become world famous and mega rich!

Academia states that in the absence of any sort of evidence of the existence of something it must be deemed not to exist until verifiable evidence is found - thus god is held not to exist pending some sort of verifiable evidence.

But what if one of the other 1,000+ gods was the real god, and he also had the first commandment that you were not to put another god before him. Then you would have violated the first commandment of the real god, and you would go to hell. The atheist would not have violated the first commandment and would not be punished for that. You would lose the wager. The odds are 1000 to 1 against you.

This is the first place I ever heard of it, to be honest, so I had to google it a while ago. I found it so uncompelling that I can't even recall how it went and don't care to refresh my memory.

But thanks for thinking of me.