Demonising the devil

Pascal’s Wager is surely one the worst reasons to be religious. If he is right and I am wrong, Pascal spends eternity in heaven, and I suffer in hell. If I am right and he is wrong, we both just die, and he loses nothing (apart from 1/7 of his life in church). Of course there are many religions, so how does Pascal know he has the right one? So it is flawed reasoning. And it is not evidence that persuades him, but fear. Let us not take Blaise Pascal as an idiot. Let us forgive his perverted religiosity, his weak convictions and his desperate faith, faith based not upon the bible or on the supposed teachings of Jesus, but on his fear of eternal damnation. Let us conjure up the notion that he was on to something, let us delude ourselves with the possibility he could be correct. As a ‘Christian’ (albeit a fairly shit one), upon... [read full story]