Pascal's Wager

"There are countless arguments for and against the existence of God, but one famous argument involves analyzing costs and benefits.

"Blaise Pascal was a brilliant seventeenth century mathematician. He made foundational contributions to statistics and to our understanding of how air pressure works. He was also a devout Catholic, and came up with an interesting argument for why one should believe in God, now known as Pascal's Wager.

"Pascal laid out the wager in part 233 of his Pensées, a series of notes for an uncompleted defense of Christianity that were published posthumously.

"Pascal argued that, while it's impossible to prove whether or not God exists, people should believe in God anyway. The essential component of the argument is the relative payoffs and costs for believing or not believing in God under either the assumption God exists or God doesn't exist."

A recent post read by lovely Myrna referred to this previously published Business Insider post by writer Andy Kiersz.

To access the complete post, please access:

Business Insider: According To Math, You Should Believe In God (18 JUN 14)

Thank you, Myrna, for the tip!