Agnostic Atheism Wager
From RationalWiki
The Agnostic Atheism Wager was written in response to Pascal's Wager, regarding the existence of God, or more specifically, how one should act in life. It stems from the primary criticism of Pascal's argument that God should be able to see through the deceit of someone claiming to believe in him for the sake of going to heaven for rather than genuine belief, which is difficult, if not impossible, to fake.
It states:
Whether or not you believe in God, you should live your life with love, kindness, compassion, mercy and tolerance while trying to make the world a better place. If there is no God, you have lost nothing and will have made a positive impact on those around you. If there is a benevolent God reviewing your life, you will be judged on your actions and not just on your ability to blindly believe, when there is a significant lack of evidence of any one god's existence.
It is often expanded upon to state that a god that would hold judgment against a good person purely on the basis of whether or not the person believes in or worships them, rather than on being a good person, would not be a god worth worshiping.
Like Pascal's wager, this one suffers from the fact that there are multiple religions, since different religions consider different things to be "good". Even more difficult is that different sects of the same religion often disagree upon vital points. Because of this, one needs to deal with trying to find the good way to live between many different, often conflicting, definitions of what it means to be good. This does tend to point out the stupidity of religious dogma, and lead one to a secular attempt to determine "how we should live".
Both wagers are also based on simplistic assumptions about the nature of God. Pascal's wager assumes that God (if He/She/It does exist) would reward only those who devote themselves to Him/Her/It, regardless of their motives for doing so, and punishes those who do not, regardless of whether they have led an otherwise righteous life. The Agnostic Atheism Wager assumes the opposite: that God (if He/She/It does exist) would reward or punish us based only on our conduct, regardless of whether we believe in and worship Him/Her It.
Even so (even if it doesn't get you into heaven) being a good person tends to make others like you more, and perhaps even inspire them to do the same. And after all, this life is guaranteed, so improving the circumstances in this life makes for a guaranteed improvement, unlike trying to ensure coming to a good potential afterlife.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Source: "An Agnostic Atheist"
- An invocation of this wager at "de-conversion", a site for recovering believers.
