I haven’t read the text of Pascal’s wager in a very long time, but I believe he goes on to address the objection that we can’t simply choose to believe stuff, the way we choose a brand of a cat food in a pet store. He suggests that if we lack belief, we take various proactive steps to essentially brainwash ourselves into believing, as if that were even possible. The whole thing is so ludicrous it would be laugh-out-loud funny if Christianity were not so dangerous to society, public policy and mental health.
There are only 3 kinds of people who don’t believe in the existence of God -
- The ignorant
- The insane
- Their symbiosis
What you should do about it - that’s another matter. 
If you say so, Mr. Atheist.
Why don’t you go to an atheist thread to spread your ignorance?
There are tons of them here…
Freespirit,
I am a resurrected being many times over.
Still don’t believe in god.
How were you resurrected?
Shot point blank range in the head man by someone else. Poisoned by someone else. Died of natural causes.
I’m still here.
My theory is that it’s my good karma or the spirit of someone else’s good karma that brought me back.
I have no clue.
Let me tell you my post resurrected wisdom:
Existence has three structural problems:
1.) everyone’s consent is being violated forever (that which we don’t want)
2.) the pleasurable exclusive access problem (while you’re having the best time of your life, you’re stomping on someone else’s heart)
3.) the negative zero sum problem (for every winner, there is more than one loser)
When I look at those three problems, I see no divinity.
Wow.
Did they ever catch the shooter? What was the motive? What type of gun?
These two posts taken together show how contempt breeds contempt. Seeking to overcome duality one moves towards the Good.
I was assassinated multiple times because of my WORDS.
Everyone knows who the shooter is. Death.
But that’s not really the point.
I’m still here.
The poisoner was death as well.
I’m still here.
I have no scars on my body.
My life is 100% supernatural.
If I had a weaker mind, I’d believe in god, and be the first in line. I’m not.
How do I explain this in human terms?
When I kept coming back, the spirits started paying attention and getting very afraid of me. Fear is not a good way to earn respect or make friends.
I felt very lonely that the angels and demons knew I was resurrected a few times and they were afraid of me.
I could go on and on about all this stuff. That’s not really the point.
The real point is the three structural problems to existence itself that I just highlighted in my last post:
Existence has three structural problems:
1.) everyone’s consent is being violated forever (that which we don’t want)
2.) the pleasurable exclusive access problem (while you’re having the best time of your life, you’re stomping on someone else’s heart)
3.) the negative zero sum problem (for every winner, there is more than one loser)
When I look at those three problems, I see no divinity.
I am not an atheist, but I can see the problems with Pascal’s wager. It says nothing of grace or the possibility of free salvation for all. Based on belief, the wager is infantile, showing no progress in Christianity beyond punishment and reward as noted in literalistic reading of the Bible.
The majority of people living on the Earth are not Christian. If the majority goes to hell, God is a loser.
I think the literalistic reading of the bible is the real problem, both for Christians and atheists. They are motivated to defend or attack a text that both sides deem to be literal rather than metaphorical. But was in not Jesus who spoke in parables?
For myself, I have always interpreted the book of Genesis, for example, to be an ancestral memory of the transition from hunter/gatherer culture to agricultural society. That could be wrong, of course, but I see plenty of ways to defend this reading.
On this reading hell is also a metaphor, not a literal place of eternal damnation and suffering but a symbol of separation from all that is good.
I was wondering if ghosts loose their novelty when they loose their bodies.
In a mental state where they refuse to change their ways.
Eternal punishment has to do with eternal realities.
And we forget the other side of the coin:
eternal rewards.
LDS teach that absence of God is the only hell.
Being in God’s presence is heaven.
Pascal’s Wager is just meant to be a beginning, a motivator for skeptics and agnostics towards a deeper faith that ends in sainthood.
Sainthood.
That’s laughable.
We live in an imperfect existence.
Sinless people are impossible.
I can tell you a million sins of each saint right now.
What makes me stand apart is that I try to violate as little consent as possible and have a new plan for all of existence.
I’d literally laugh at someone if they called me a saint, and I’m the best exemplar, not just on earth, but all of existence to deserve such a title.
You are delusional.
Saints are not sinless.
You should study more.
You want me to study more?
I’ve studied under the saints dude.
I’ve studied under every fucking thing that crawls on this earth.
I’ll tell you something about learning…
We never stop learning until we die, and we never die.
LOL.
Ok.
Is that intended as a helpful assessment or a direct insult?
I call people face to face psychotic if they are.
Delusional is kind.
It just means they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Psychotics aren’t talking about anything even though they are talking.
Besides, if you really read every post on ILP and deconstruct then, everyone ad homs.
I actually get angry at people like iambiguous who will take 10,000 words to call someone a dipshit without saying it. Just fucking say it dude. Save me the 10,000 characters and then gloating that you never insulted someone.
It’s fucking ridiculous.
I understand as a moderator this is important to you, I’m highlighting the larger picture and maybe we can take it to meta.
I think you’re on the right track. The people, places and things of scripture are types or figures of spiritual realities. You are also prudent to be tentative about your interpretations. The deeper the myth the greater than number of interpretations it generates.