If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.
-Blaise Pascal
But if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty […] and you are still in your sins […] we are the most pitiful of all people.
-The Apostle Paul
Please stop using Pascal’s Wager to win people for Christ. Here’s how the argument works:
If God exists and you believe in Him, then you win infinite gain.
If God exists and you don’t believe in Him, then you lose infinite loss.
If God doesn’t exist and you believe in Him, then you lose nothing.
If God doesn’t exist and you don’t believe in Him, then you lose nothing.
Basically, it’s like searching for kryptonite just in case Superman exists and wants to kill you. Before we say something to prove God’s existence to a friend, we should first ask if the same thing could be said about the Flying Spaghetti Monster: if your proof could be said about FSM, then it is best not to say it. For example:
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists and you believe in Him, then you win infinite gain.
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists and you don’t believe in Him, then you lose infinite loss.
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist and you believe in Him, then you lose nothing.
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist and you don’t believe in Him, then you lose nothing.
Do you see how Pascal’s Wager, when applied to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, isn’t very convincing? Even if this logic was legit, then if you short-change yourself by restricting it to Jehovah – it would be statistically better to believe in every god instead of just One.
We don’t need to be logicians to see a hole in Pascal’s wager; all we need is to compare his thoughts to what the Bible says:
But if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty […] and you are still in your sins […] we are the most pitiful of all people.
-The Apostle Paul (1 Cor 15:14-19)
Here’s a chart of Pascal’s Wager:
| God exists | God doesn’t exist | |
| Believe | Win | Nothing |
| Don’t believe | Lose | Nothing |
Believers can’t lose, so believe! …but if we consider The Apostle Paul’s Wager, we soon realize that we are running a risk of becoming the world’s biggest losers:
| God exists | God doesn’t exist | |
| Believe | Win | Most pitiful on earth |
| Don’t believe | Lose | Nothing |
We run a big risk if God doesn’t exist… or even if He does exist but Christ is not risen. So, stop believing, right? Well, in the end, we should believe that which is true. We don’t believe or disbelieve things simply because of the risks involved, rather we believe that which is supported by evidence.
I’d encourage you to explore the world of apologetics. We’ve written a few articles on apologetics on our blog, but there are plenty of other resources out there as well. And don’t just read Christian apologetics. Read responses to Christian apologetics to weigh both sides. Try Googling “Does God exist?” and click around to see what you can dig up.