Pascal's Wager (God is a safe bet) "If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing--but if you don't believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist." This argument is known as Pascal's Wager *It has several flaws* Firstly, it does not indicate which religion to follow. Indeed, there are many mutually exclusive and contradictory religions out there. This is often described as the "avoiding the wrong hell" problem. If a person is a follower of one religion, he may end up in another religion's version of hell. Even if we assume that there's a God, that doesn't imply that there's one unique God. Which should we believe in? If we believe in all of them, how will we decide which commandments to follow? Secondly, the statement that "If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing" is not true. Suppose you're believing in the wrong God--the true God might punish you for your foolishness. Consider also the deaths that have resulted from people rejecting medicine in favor of prayer. Another flaw in the argument is that it is based on the assumption that the two possibilities are equally likely--or at least, that they are of comparable likelihood. If, in fact, the possibility of there being a God is close to zero, the argument becomes much less persuasive. So it is only likely to convince those who believe already. Also, many feel that for intellectually honest people, belief is based on evidence, with some amount of intuition. It is not a matter of will or cost-benefit analysis. Formally speaking, the argument consists of four statements: 1. One does not know whether God exists. 2. Not believing in God is bad for one's eternal soul if God does exist. 3. Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist. 4. Therefore it is in one's interest to believe in God. There are two approaches to the argument. The first is to view Statement 1 as an assumption, and Statement 2 as a consequence of it. The problem is that there's really no way to arrive at Statement 2 from Statement 1 via simple logical inference. The statements just don't follow on from each other. The alternative approach is to claim that Statements 1 and 2 are both assumptions. The problem with this is that Statement 2 is then basically an assumption which states the Christian position, and only a Christian will agree with that assumption. The argument thus collapses to "If you are a Christian, it is in your interests to believe in God"--a rather vacuous tautology, and not the way Pascal intended the argument to be viewed. Also, if we don't even know that God exists, why should we take Statement 2 over some similar assumption? Isn't it just as likely that God would be angry at people who chose to believe for personal gain? If God is omniscient, he will certainly know who really believes and who believes as a wager. He will spurn the latter... assuming he actually cares at all whether people truly believe in him. Some have suggested that the person who chooses to believe based on Pascal's Wager, can then somehow make the transition to truly believing. Unfortunately, most atheists don't find it possible to make that leap. In addition, this hypothetical God may require more than simple belief; almost all Christians believe that the Christian God requires an element of trust and obedience from his followers. That destroys the assertion that if you believe but are wrong, you lose nothing. Finally, if this God is a fair and just God, surely he will judge people on their actions in life, not on whether they happen to believe in him. A God who sends good and kind people to hell is not one most atheists would be prepared to consider worshipping. Atheism is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This absence of belief generally comes about either through deliberate choice, or from an inherent inability to believe religious teachings which seem literally incredible. It is not a lack of belief born out of simple ignorance of religious teachings. Some atheists go beyond a mere absence of belief in gods: they actively believe that particular gods, or all gods, do not exist. Just lacking belief in Gods is often referred to as the "weak atheist" position; whereas believing that gods do not (or cannot) exist is known as "strong atheism." www.infidels.org
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News – Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist. His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk.
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(cnn.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 09:42pm
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Money – Last Thursday (July 3rd), Coca Cola Brazil launched the drink i9 - Hidrotonico, the Brazilian version of Powerade. As a part of the i9 marketing strategy in blogs & social media, Coca Cola handpicked 9 prominent bloggers, custom made their homepage and gifted them a fancy USB mini fridge with the new product to be tested - a reason to blog abou
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(businessblogs.us)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 09:40pm
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Politics – Bush is confronted during July 4th speech. He is berated for war crimes and for overthrowing our form of government. We need more protestors like these brave people. They are saying what the majority of people think. God Bless American.
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(cnn.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 03:05pm
Popular Videos – An Independence Day look back at the radical influence of Thomas Paine, the often-overlooked founding father whose words sparked the American Revolution.
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(link.brightcove.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 02:56pm
Do No Evil – We now know that the torture was the result of a policy set in the White House by Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Rice -- who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse. And documents obtained by the ACLU have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.
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(huffingtonpost.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 01:24pm
Pets – More than a year after being confiscated from Vick's property, Leo, a tan, muscular pit bull, dons a colorful clown collar and visits cancer patients as a certified therapy dog in California. Hector, who bears deep scars on his chest and legs, recently was adopted and is about to start training for national flying disc competitions in Minnesota.
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3)
(msnbc.msn.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 11:47am
Art & Design – A visual interpretation by Spadecaller of Harry Belfonte's recording of "A Hole in the Bucket." Music recorded on May 2, 1960 in Carnegie Hall.
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(youtube.com)
Voted for on July 08, 2008 11:41am
Politics – This story describes how a recent article in the New York Times, "China Inspired Interrogations at GuantÃ;¡namo" (7/2/08), which details the use of Albert Biderman's "Chart of Coercion" by SERE instructors at Guantanamo prison, uses only partial revelations and other forms of misinformation to distort th
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(valtinsblog.blogspot.com)
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Music – Back in a time long ago,there was a band of young men from England that was doing a folksy blues roots country type of music.They were looked down on because they didn't play pop songs like some of their peers.
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(youtube.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 09:07pm
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Do No Evil – Torture advocated, secret armies and prisons encouraged, ignoring habeas corpus for anyone pointed to and called "enemy combatant." Yet, non dare call it treason.
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(populistamerica.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 07:35pm
Art & Design – New Spadecaller video presents poetry and visuals comprised of the artwork of Salvador Dali, Hendrik Mesdag, and Spadecaller, and is accompanied by Montavani's theme from Exodus.
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(youtube.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 07:19pm
News – A music festival with heavy metal, punk, hip-hop and pop music might seem like an unusual place to get baptized, but Creation is a festival with strict rules: no alcohol, no drugs and no sex before marriage.
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(news.yahoo.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 07:17pm
Politics – President Bush was at Monticello for a 4th of July celebration and he delivered an address. But it's quite telling that his speechwriters, in quoting Jefferson, cut out an anti-religious statement from a long and famous quote.
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(scienceblogs.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 04:02pm
Do No Evil – This place is a joke. Each day I move around carrying a mobile phone (traceable) and an Oyster card (trackable), monitored, on average, by 10 times as many CCTV cameras as there are in the Big Brother house. Wherever I go, a gigantic compound eye peers at the back of my neck. I'm another bustling dot in the ant farm.
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(guardian.co.uk)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 04:01pm
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Celebrities – In Part I of this turgid tale, WILLIAM F- SHATNER told your humble narrator, "I'd never let a kid onto my bridge," and humiliated, embarrassed, and crushed his fragile teenage ego. Enjoy the conclusion of WILLIAM F- SHATNER. I hope it was worth the wait. (site possibly NSFW)
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(suicidegirls.com)
Voted for on July 07, 2008 02:54pm