Craig and Ron --
[Ham quoting Pascal's Wager]:
"Let us weigh the gain and loss in choosing 'heads' that God is. Let
us weigh the two cases: if you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose
nothing. Wager then unhesitatingly that He is."
[Craig coming up with four possibiities]:
The proper analysis must consider all 4 possibilities: God exists & you
Believe he does; God exists & you do Not believe he does; god Doesn't
exist & you Believe he does; god Doesn't exist & you do Not believe he
does.
If god Doesn't exist, it is better Not to believe he does, because a false
belief leads to all sorts of problems.
If God does exist, then he will punish those irrational & imprudent people
who Believe he does without good reasons & he will reward those rational &
prudent people who do Not believe because they don't have good reason to.
So whether God exists or Doesn't exist, it is better to Not believe he
does.
QED
Of course, I included Pascal's quote not to argue for "God's existence" but
for the rationality of a primary source as a metaphysical foundation. Your
premises that 1) God punishes those who believe he exists "without good
reasons" and 2) God rewards those who "don't have good reasons" to believe
are unwarranted assumptions that are irrelevant to the wager. The question
is not concerned with "rewards & punishments" in an afterlife, but whether
it is more reasonable to believe your existence is part of a higher reality
or purpose than not. If you are an MoQuist, I assume you find it more
reasonable to believe DQ is the reality you are derived from or participate
in. As an Essentialist I believe in the reasonableness of the primacy of
Essence.
[Ron expresses his ambivalence on the matter]:
Ya know Ham, the more I discover about metaphysics, the more I've begun
to realize, I really don't need one, I mean I have a sort of really loose
open
philosophy. But a metaphysic? just seems to keep getting in the way of
things.
Yeah, Ron. Metaphysics forces you to think on a broader scale of things
which can be upsetting. Better to
limit your vision to the mundanities of common experience and avoid that
risk. Might as well live by a "loose philosophy", if any at all, since
there's nothing you can do about reality but accept what fate brings you.
Spoken like a true nihilist.
--Ham
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