Does God Exist? A Mathematical Answer.
Absent evidence, Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth-century French mathematician, set about deducing whether or not one should believe in a god purely from a probabilistic perspective.
He reasoned as follows.
- If you believe in god and he/she does exist — all is well; you are saved and rewarded. Virgins are waiting for you in heaven.
- If you believe in god and he/she does not exist — no harm done. You wasted some time doing some unnecessary things and sacrificed some sinful pleasures, but hey, shit happens.
- If you don’t believe in god and he/she does exist — you are eternally damned with no recourse. This is a horrific outcome.
Pascal reasoned that given the horrific scenario #3, the harm far outweighs any benefit, hence, one is better off believing in God.
Interestingly, the majority arrive at this intuitively, though not as logically as Pascal did.
Nine out of ten Americans believe in god — though they dare not say so — for the same reason as Pascal’s deduction.
So far, good? Not so fast.
Pascal’s reasoning missed out on a critical aspect, which, to his defense, may not have been common knowledge of his day — the world does not have ONE god. If he had that knowledge and knew that every major religion is exclusivist, then his analysis was, at best, tardy.
Ninety percent of the people on this planet have faith in one religion or another out of the thousands known to exist.
More than 70% of our fellow human beings belong to one of the three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
According to at least two of these three, the other two are wrong and are going to hell regardless of what they do — good or bad.
The third, the Hindus, aren’t exactly rotating between churches, mosques, and temples in an all-paths-lead-to-the-same spirit. They are sticking to their version as the best and a cut above the rest.
Each of them can perfectly pick apart the logical fallacies in the others’ beliefs. Only they cannot see those same fallacies within their own beliefs.
why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but not notice the log in your eye? … You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye (Mathew 7:3–5)
Amen.
If you are not a fan of Mathew, take this
It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice. — Buddha
The above two wise proverbs demonstrate that human wisdom is universal and does not come from a specific religion. Religions and rituals are vestigial remnants of our primate past and not wellsprings of divine truths. The objective truth is inside every sound mind that commits to seek it.
Most religions stipulate that if you don’t believe in the right god and worship him/her the right way, you are doomed. The very allure of religion is its prescription. I will write about that in a separate article.
So, in a modified form of Pascal’s wager, not only do you MUST believe in god, but you MUST also believe in the RIGHT god.
Now, how do you know which god is right?
Well, that comes easy to the believers.
Whatever you are born into is the right religion.
Most people die in the same religion they were born in.
But don’t be fooled by that statistic. They will wave flags, argue, go to wars, moralize, proselytize, rationalize, and the works, to show that it is not by the mere coincidence of birth that they happened upon the right god, but because of their ability to “discover” the truth that they are who they are.
Some humble souls admit that the almighty, in his/her divine mercy, placed them in the “right” pedigree, whereas others were not so lucky.
Consider that there are at least 10 major religions that are exclusivist. Your chances of being born in the wrong one are 9 out of 10 (90%). You must indeed be lucky to get that right. The good news is that anyone who believes in religion also believes that he/she is in the right 10%. (I am using 10% for simplicity, the actual percentage of being born right is far less)
I have explained the improbability of being born in the right religion here.
I don't blame you if all that sounds crazy.
With that, poor Pascal’s wager does not seem all that neat, and the math becomes all tangled up and messy.
Then there is the Epicurean Paradox
Of course, the faithful have a convoluted, circular and logic-bending answer, like a Mobius strip, to every paradox you can throw at them. Absent science and evidence, they have had centuries to do nothing but come up with creative answers to keep the faith.
Essentially, they have manufactured an answer to explain or justify everything god cannot do. Because, obviously, if he/she could do it, it wouldn’t need an answer, the evidence would suffice.
Which brings me to one of my favorite quotes of all times
“So convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”
― Benjamin Franklin
And finally, do something.
The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.
― Napoleon
To the decent people out there. When you hear a voice of reason, please reshare/repost and promote it.
I write about wellness, current events & topics that I feel strongly about. Opinions are my own. Polite debates welcome. Targeted harassment will be blocked
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