POSTSCRIPT TO 12/16/2023, ADVENT: PASCAL’S WAGER

In a private correspondence, I explained further about the issue behind Pascal’s “wager.”  Pascal’s starting point is the recognition that we cannot prove or disprove the existence of God.

The problem with scientific and deductive “proofs” is that the conclusion is always contained in at least one of the premises, which themselves are created by definition or by unprovable, inductive reasoning.  For example, one of my colleagues argues that there is no God, because there is no such thing as disembodied agency.  His logical syllogism goes like this:

• Premise 1: Scientifically and experientially, there is no such thing as disembodied volition or agency.
• Premise 2: God is defined as disembodied/non-material agency.
• Conclusion: Either "God" has no volition/agency (violating #2), or does not exist.

But the problem is in the premises.  Our knowledge of embodiment/matter/existence cannot be used to define the "being-ness" of God.  What if -- a condition that I think is biblical -- our existence lies within a greater or other being-ness of God?  Within human thinking and existence, we could not comprehend ("grasp together") such being-ness, since it is other than our own.  However, it might be possible for that other Being-ness to enter into our existence and reveal Itself to us.  That is the claim of those who have experienced the grace of God.

As John Baillie said, “Thou art hidden behind the curtain of sense, incomprehensible power; yet here I speak with Thee familiarly as child to parent, as friend to friend.*  That is the response of a human heart that has been touched by the Presence of God.

Thank you, Lord, that your touch reached my hardened heart.  Amen.

*A Dairy of Private Prayer, Day 9, morning.

ADVENT: PASCAL’S WAGER AND SEEKING GOD

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

"Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.   For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

In a “debate”* I once had with an atheistic philosopher, he brought up his disgust with “Pascal’s wager."^  My colleague summarized it as:

One can choose arbitrarily to believe in God, or one can choose not to believe in God.  If there is no God, one has nothing to lose by making the first choice.  However, if there is a God, one has all to lose by making the second choice.  Therefore, it is logical to make the first choice to try to avoid going to hell.

He saw Pascal’s wager as intellectual suicide.  (It would also be fake "belief.")  And, given his understanding, he would be right.

However, that was not Pascal’s line of thought.  Pascal thought about writing a letter “to incite to the search of God” (184).  He starts with the understand that frail human reason is incapable of deductively proving or disproving the existence of an inscrutable God.  So, he encourages people to realize that it is reasonable to seek God existentially:

"Endeavor, then, to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God….  Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. (233)

Simply put: if a person aligns oneself to God’s will, starting to read Scripture, praying, obeying, etc., one encounters the reality of the Presence of God.  God rewards all who seek him (Heb 11:6b).  In Isaiah 65:1 God says, "I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, 'Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation that did not invoke my name” (Isa 65:1).

In Advent, we remind ourselves to be seekers of a God who humbles himself to make himself known.
In Advent, we remember that God condescended to become flesh, incarnate in Jesus, to make Himself known.  God humiliated himself to be rejected and crucified in order to make Himself known.
In Advent, we remember that no one is pure enough to approach the Holy God; but that the Holy God blesses those with His presence who humbly seek Him.

Lord, may I be a true seeker today and the next.  Amen.

*Students have sometimes asked me to debate an atheistic philosopher.  I always say that I will not debate “proofs” for the existence of God, but I will discuss what my worldview is, how I came to it, and why I support it.  "Proof" of God is experiential, not deductive.
^ Pascal was a 17th century mathematician and theologian.  The "wager" is found in Pascal's Pensees, to which I have cited section numbers.