Editing Pascal's wager (section)

{{redirect|Pascal's Wager|the video game|Pascal's Wager (video game){{!}}''Pascal's Wager'' (video game)}}
{{Short description|Argument for the belief in God}}
[[File:Blaise Pascal Versailles.JPG|thumb|Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)]]
{{Philosophy of religion sidebar|God}}

'''Pascal's wager''' is a philosophical argument advanced by [[Blaise Pascal]] (1623–1662), a French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and theologian.<ref>{{cite book |last= Connor |first= James A. |date= 2006 |title= Pascal's wager: the man who played dice with God |location= San Francisco |publisher= HarperSanFrancisco |pages= [https://archive.org/details/pascalswagermanw00conn/page/180 180–1] |isbn= 9780060766917 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/pascalswagermanw00conn/page/180 }}</ref> This argument posits that individuals essentially engage in a life-defining [[gamble]] regarding the belief in the [[existence of God]].

Pascal contends that a rational person should adopt a lifestyle consistent with the existence of [[God]] and should strive to believe in God. The reasoning for this stance involves the potential outcomes: if God does not exist, the believer incurs only finite losses, potentially sacrificing certain pleasures and luxuries; if God does exist, the believer stands to gain immeasurably, as represented for example by an eternity in [[Heaven]] in [[Abrahamic religion|Abrahamic tradition]], while simultaneously avoiding boundless losses associated with an eternity in [[Hell]].<ref>"Blaise Pascal", ''Columbia History of Western Philosophy'', page 353.</ref>

The first written expression of this wager is in Pascal's ''[[Pensées]]'' ("Thoughts"), a posthumous compilation of previously unpublished notes.<ref name=clarke2005>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Clarke |first=Desmond |title=Blaise Pascal |date=June 22, 2015 |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Fall 2015 |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-last=Zalta |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/pascal/}}</ref> Pascal's wager is the first formal application of [[decision theory]], [[existentialism]], [[pragmatism]], and [[Voluntarism (philosophy)|voluntarism]].<ref name="SEP entry">{{Cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/index.html|title=Pascal's Wager|last=Hájek|first=Alan|date=November 6, 2012|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=April 21, 2016}}</ref>

Critics of the wager question the ability to provide definitive proof of God's existence. The [[argument from inconsistent revelations]] highlights the presence of various belief systems, each claiming exclusive access to divine truths. Additionally, the argument from inauthentic belief raises concerns about the genuineness of faith in God if it is motivated solely by potential benefits and losses.