The Metaphysical Gamble

The philosopher Blaise Pascal’s wager shows the inherent gain to be had from believing in God. If there is one, your belief will lead to salvation, and unbelief to death. If there is not one, your belief and unbelief lead to death. You stand to gain more through belief, as the consequences are either neutral or positive.

But there is more to faith than merely taking a metaphysical gamble. It is possible to choose the wrong God, and that belief leads to death as well. Far from being a choice of two, it is actually a choice of countless thousands. That is why the nihilist viewpoint that it does not matter what you make of your life does not hold true.

Richard Dawkins tried to counter this by saying that one should look at the life wasted and problems caused by your actions if you choose the wrong path. This is entirely true, but not for the reasons he thinks.

The many conflicting religions mean that if we are to discern which God is the path to salvation, we must examine the evidence and test the weight of these many conflicting Gods to determine how to live our lives. It is certainly a more productive way of living than merely plodding along in a cycle of consumption and excretion.

And even if you are wrong, it will still be possible that many good deeds were done in your life that bettered the wellbeing of others. Hence it is more valuable to society and to individuals if those around them believe in a moral code which compels them to do good. Christianity has proven itself over the years to be a force that revolutionises nations, brings them stability and technological advancement, even where the underlying culture was not one that encouraged that sort of thing. 

Most of the early scientific endeavours were organised by monks with access to the observations of their forebears, which among other things has purportedly given us modern gunpowder, astronomy and an early attempt at aerodynamic flight. 

Pointing out the imprisonment of Galileo Galilei and the ridicule of his work misses the point that his work would not even have been encouraged had it not been for the way Christianity values learning. It is only the short-sighted and power hungry clergy that suppressed him, more concerned with perpetuating their own hegemony than on truth or science. 

In the long run, even atheists want to live in Christian nations, as they are the only places where they can practice their apostasy in relative peace.

The very empowering nature of Christian society ought to be evidence that its creeds are divinely inspired. It is why when our nations were Christian they could put men in orbit and cut canals through continents, but now that we are overrun with heathens we cannot even get the trains to run on time. 

Before one chooses a path of belief and reason to guide one’s actions, one must consider whether the tenets and laws of that religion create a better society or a worse one. If the overall result is for the better, it can reasonably be assumed that on the evidence as we have it, that religion and that deity represents the path of truth.