[killermosquito]

My favorite quote on the subject:

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Blaise Pascal

[Notary Sojac]

Pascal's wager falls down in two respects.

First, which God? Read a little further in the Pensees and you will find that he suggests reinforcing a tentative belief by "having masses said, taking the holy water" which makes it clear that his wager is not a bet on God, but a bet on Roman Catholic doctrine. Let me ask you, would I be wagering correctly if I chose to be a Unitarian, a Jehovah's Witness, or a Jew?

Second, if there is anything an omniscient God should know, it's the contents of the human heart. Do you not think God could tell the difference between true belief and a belief concocted for the purposes of winning the "wager"??

[Burkean Buckleyite]

Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?

Pascal's Wager fails because there is more than one option for belief in God -- and, for all we know, following the wrong religion offends God more than declining to follow any of them (which means that you may indeed have something to lose).