Not one of us. WE all Have our own pre designed opinions on things, but what we know for certain is very limited.
It has been argued that anyone who would openly mock religion, and anyone who would argue with its followers may actually be biting the had the feeds them. That we may be wrong, that we dont know who if anyone is upthere, and it may be that vengfule guy that gets so much talk on sundays.
this is something that we cant know, that is until we actually die, and we then experience what happens. so the question is this. Is it wise to disagree on the existance of something that may or may not torture you in hell for eternity?
This was posed to me, and i called it for what it was, it was a play on the thought known as "Pascals Wager". pascals wager in summary is this.
either there is or is not a god.
if there is a god and you belive, then you will be rewarded.
if there is not a god and you believe, nothing will happen.
the same if you dont belive and there is no god.
but if you dont belive, and there is a god, you will recive punishment.
there is a one if four chance that you will get good things, and 1 in four that you get bad.
there is also a 1 in 2 chance that you will get nothing.
so if you belive, you are either wrong, or you are rewarded.
if you dont, then you destroy any chance of the reward, and hope only for nothing as the alternative is punishment.
so the best course of action is to belive as it costs nothing.
well, thats all well and good, there is alot of truth to that, but lets really look at the costs of belief here. The costs of belief are just not as visible in the argument for my taste to be valid.
If you happen to be one of many good people, with a spouce of the oppisite gender with two or three children, then the costs are little more than a prayer or two and a footbal game time to time for church. not to bad i would say! However, what happens if you are single, gay, and have no desire for chuldren, what then? What if almost everything you belive in, and want out of life is considered sinful to the church? Well the cost has gone up now hasnt it.
These costs are rising faster, and faster than the church can possibly catch up to it.
There are costs that require you to understand your own body as a teenager and that is paid in the name of god, so that we develop children who have little understanding of the world of sex.
there are some who dont understand it until they are actually adults! Sad but true, i have met a few.
The costs sky rocket if you happen to be gay. then you are really screwed, you then are forced to find a denomination that will accept you, or get told that what you feel is evil and wrong, or best yet, you can get forsaken by your family.
the costs ad up if you have children. you must take the burden of showing them the path, while you yourself have been marked with a scarlet letter if you happen to have children with the other parent not around you with a marriage license.
There are even churches that still teach that black people are sinful and marked with the mark of cain!, You have to be extra good then so that if you are black you can turn white, or that if you are white, you can have black freinds without turning yourself black in the process.
Then there is the one that we all personaly face, and one that i am not willing to pay or let anyone else pay either. the cost of knowledge, the cost of accepting your religion so that you must choose between hell or things that are verifiable and have evidence. when we have to choose between real education, and bible study, that is the highest price of all.
not only do you sacrafice all the others have, but you also sacrafice your future, you make the decision to acknoledge a higher being over science that continues to help us and save lives.
Stem cell, Evolution, Cryogenics, Cybernetics, nano technology, the list goes on as long as the future makes for us new technologies.
this same kind of cost, but in a different direction, is the cost of chosen morality and religion.
Pascals Wager can be played on any god you describe. So, by choosing a religion, and following it, you are by default denying the other religions. There may even be things that you dont agree with in the religion you chose, and because you cant switch without worrying about the odds going agaisnt you, the price for this is being stuck, following guidelines that you may find wrong, and with this you also sacrafice your freedom..
So, what is the real cost here, what is the real cost of Pascals wager?
only you can decide this, only you can really see this.
as for me, i decided that my freedom was worth more..
(i do realize that in this post, i did not really hit it like an actual numbers game, but i did need to add in the oppositions argument before i hit the numbers again,
stay tuned for part 3.)
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