Comments on: A Reversal of Pascal’s Wager

By: (((Billy)))

(((Billy))) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:58:43 +0000

Newbie: Welcom to my blog, and welcome to reality. Nice circular reasoning there. Near as I can make out, no matter what humans do would piss god off. All those piddly little rule.

By: newbie atheist

newbie atheist — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:10:42 +0000

If a god gave me this ability to think and reason, then failing to use that god-given talent, and instead choosing to believe in the supernatural, would surely piss off such a god.

We win.

By: (((Billy)))

(((Billy))) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:50:03 +0000

Modesty Press: Thanks for stopping by. That’s a wonderful flaw. I’ll have to look into that further, expecially in relation to some of the religious asshats I have known.

By: Modesty Press

Modesty Press — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:43:26 +0000

I think a somewhat subtler flaw in Pascal’s Wager is also overlooked by believers.

Most religious believers seem to believe you should sincerely accept God in your heart, be “born again,” etc. If a person accepts God as a cynical evaluation of a wager, that’s not very sincere, is it? Does God really want someone who is believing based on a “calculation,” like a person at a blackjack table picking a card because the odds are better?

By: Carnival of the Godless # 99 « Oz Atheist’s Weblog

Carnival of the Godless # 99 « Oz Atheist’s Weblog — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:15:45 +0000

[...] presents A Reversal of Pascal’s Wager posted at (((Billy))) The [...]

By: (((Billy)))

(((Billy))) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:03:12 +0000

Noble Crusade: Thanks for the link. The only thing I seek is knowledge — cultural history and natural history. But thanks for the link anyway. Should be fun and educational.

By: (((Billy)))

(((Billy))) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:01:51 +0000

Sarge: I hereby present you with a “Halleck” award (from the book Dune by Frank Herbert) for coming up with the perfect quote. Congratulations. You and Ex are the only two to have won one.

By: Sarge

Sarge — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:55:15 +0000

As our friend Bill Shakespeare observed in “Hamlet”, “To die…to sleep…perchance to dream. Aye, there’s the rub…for in that sleep of death who knows what dreams may come”? With a final observation that “Thus death doth make cowards of us all”. I suspect Bill captured the nut of the religious need in that soliloquy.

This “divine inspiration” schtick takes a lot of desperation to buy into, in my opinion.

“Moved by the spirit”. What a crock.

By: Expanding Our Social Network « Neodecaussade’s Weblog

Expanding Our Social Network « Neodecaussade’s Weblog — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:10:50 +0000

[...] God, and I need you to follow along, dear surfers, because I am going to stretch our network out to Billy, who is questing for spiritual guidance, from the outside of Christianity looking in. This is your [...]

By: ozatheist

ozatheist — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:44:39 +0000

Good one (((Billy))), I have heard this argument before, and even used it myself, but you have done a good job of expanding and explaining it.

I’ve actual had a priest tell me that “god directed it through man”. It’s a pity I didn’t know back then what I know now, because I would have asked the priest “but isn’t that what all the other ministers in all the other religions say, only one of you can be right”