
Originally Posted by
crinkle
i received this text message a couple of weeks ago:
I'd rather believe in God and die finding out there isn't one than not believe in Him and die finding that there is.
I think that's called Pascal's Wager. He argued that it's really more reasonable to believe in God than not to believe in him.
He said that if you believe in God, and you find out when you die that he does exist, you win everything and lose nothing. If you don't believe in God, and you find out when you die that he does exist, then you lose everything and win nothing. Or, if you believe in God and it turns out that he doesn't exist and that there is no after life, you would have lost nothing and won nothing since after all you're already dead and have no soul. If you don't believe in God and it turns out that he doesn't exist and there is no after life, you would have lost nothing but you would have won nothing, either.
So basically he said that you have everything to win if you believe in God and find out that he exists, and everything to lose if you don't believe in him and find out that he does exist. Even if you are right that he doesn't exist, you have nothing to lose by believing in him, nor do you have anything to win by not believing in him.