Pascal, in the 17th century, tried to find a way of explaining why the belief in (the christian) god was positive by weighing the pros and cons this is what he found:
- In his eyes to believe or not to believe in god was the same as to believe or not in life after death.
-If a person decided not to believe in god and that belief proved to be right that person would gain nothing at the end , and if he was proved wrong, and there was life after death he/she would lose everything because he/she would have put all his faith on life on earth.
-On the contrary, if a person believed in god and was proved right , that person would have everything to gain (life after death). if that belief, on the other hand, was proved wrong that person would not have lost anything.
Pascal concludes by justifying the belief in god as a winning situation. On the one hand you have nothing to gain and everything to lose, and on the other you have nothing to lose and everything you hoped for to gain.
This is to show how deep in thought philosophers have gone to justify religion and the belief in a conscious creator. I personally truly disagree with Pascal's reasonning, and find it to have many flaws, yet it remains one of the best justifications of religion I have found to date,,, what do you think?