[ExI] Pascal's wager

[William Flynn Wallace]

Well, Tara, it depends on whether you share your beliefs with others - tell
others your belief and see if you can hold on to rational friends.  bill w

On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 11:55 AM Tara Maya via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> The argument works better with unicorns. As far as I know, there are no
> downsides to believing in unicorns.
>
> > On May 4, 2021, at 9:40 AM, Ben via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> > On 01/05/2021 23:04, Spike commented:
> >> Perhaps you know of Pascal’s Wager, where the philosopher (who
> discovered a whole buttload of cool math (and so is forever on my list of
> people who can do no wrong)) expounded on how humans make a win-draw bet on
> the existence of god.  If they choose to believe and are right, then good.
> If they choose to believe and are wrong, then nothing happens, so what the
> “hell” difference does it make?  It’s a win-draw bet, ja?
> >
> > Nein.
> >
> > It's a non-starter, because first, which god do you choose to believe
> in? Choosing the wrong one could be just as disastrous as choosing none, if
> there were a god or gods. And considering how many gods we've invented over
> the millennia (a LOT), the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of choosing
> the wrong one.
> >
> > Additionally, being a believer almost always comes along with
> restrictive rules on how you should live your life, so depending on which
> religion you bet on, you could lose a lot in the way of enjoyable,
> educational and otherwise positive experiences, and gain a lot in the way
> of miserable, guilty and fearful ones. Not to mention being an active
> contributor to holding back human development generally (this applies
> whether gods exist or not).
> >
> > But I'm sure most of us on this list know this already.
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zaiboc
> >
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>
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