Editing Pascal's wager (section)

=== Inability to believe ===

Pascal addressed the difficulty that [[reason]] and [[rationality]] pose to genuine belief by proposing that "acting as if [one] believed" could "cure [one] of unbelief":

{{quote|quote=But at least learn your inability to believe, since reason brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe. Endeavor then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions. You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief and ask the remedy for it. 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. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.<ref>Pensées Section III note 233, Translation by W. F. Trotter</ref>}}