pascal's wager

English - English

Definition of pascal's wager in English English dictionary

An argument for theism formulated by Blaise Pascale maintaining that belief in God poses less risk if God does not exist than does eternal damnation for the atheist if God does exist

An argument according to which belief in God is rational whether or not God exists, since falsely believing that God exists leads to no harm whereas falsely believing that God does not exist may lead to eternal damnation. Practical argument for belief in God formulated by Blaise Pascal. In his Pensées (1657-58), Pascal posed the following argument to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational: If the Christian God does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. If the Christian God does exist, the agnostic gains eternal life by believing in him and loses an infinite good by not believing. William James objected to the argument that it supported belief in any religion that promised an eternal afterlife. Others have objected that though the argument does give one a reason for believing in the Christian God, it does not make that belief "rational" in the proper sense

Hyphenation

pascal's wa·ger

Etymology

() After French theologian, Blaise Pascale who formulated the wager