Was Pascal right?

Whenever I argue for the Christian worldview, I like to finish with Pascal’s Wager. The person who says that Pascal’s Wager is simply threatening unbelievers with hell has fundamentally misunderstood it.

So why do I use the wager? I use it as a last attempt to make people think. The wager states that:

• If God exists and you believe: you gain infinite reward (eternal life).

• If God exists and you don’t believe: you face eternal loss or negative consequences.

• If God doesn’t exist and you believe: you lose little (a finite amount).

• If God doesn’t exist and you don’t believe: you gain little or nothing (the minor benefit of living without belief).

I’m a very logical person, and the balance of Pascal’s Wager strongly leans toward the Christian worldview. Of course, the wager is not what makes Christianity true. It simply shows that there is a lot at stake. If you’re wrong about the christian truth claim, you will suffer eternal punishment. But if the christians are wrong they will suffer a finite loss.

Eternity is a concept we can’t even begin to grasp, but I will use an analogy a wise woman once told me: if we live 120 years on this earth, that is still only a tiny dot on the endless line of eternity.

So my invitation is this: if you choose to hold an atheistic, materialistic worldview, please research the Christian worldview honestly first. And then, once you have established to your own satisfaction that God doesn’t exist through what you consider strong arguments, you will at least be intellectually satisfied — and Pascal’s Wager will no longer sound like a threat, but rather like a serious call to reflection.

-Ella