What the Las Vegas Odd's Makers Are Saying About Pascal's Wager

Blaise Pascal

When you think about it Pascal’s Wager makes a lot of sense. If God exists then you come out in the black. You’re ahead of the game. You may even go to heaven and get eternal life. If there's no God, then for starters all your prayers will not be answered. Of course, part of the wager depends on your definition of what God is and specifically the idea of God as a protector and savior, who basically has a positive view of humanity. The anti-Christ of Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor is not the kind of force that Pascal was reckoning with. Truman Capote titled his unfinished novel Answered Prayers after a quote by Saint Teresa of Avila, “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” And bah humbug but eternal life may turn out to be a bore. Death gives you something to reckon with and it makes life even more precious. So there’s one more reason why you may want to put your money on the supposedly losing horse. You live your short life, with the satiation of every pleasure being like a mini-death, then you wrap things up and make room for the next sufferer. Pascal’s Wager is a little like Newtonian physics. Yes the apple’s fall is accelerated because of gravity, but the whole process might be viewed in a different light, if one were dealing with relativity or quantum physics. A positive God who seeks the best for all his children who were naturally made in his image is an anthropomorphic conception that may have little to do with the nature of actual divinity--if there's something out there.