In short it's a decision matrix that says believing in god is a better choice than not believing in god. Being an atheist I have to admit it's about the most convincing argument I've ever seen, largely because it's purely logical. Here is the short of it:
God exists------God does not exist Wager for God-------Gain all--------Satus quo Wager against God---Misery----------Status quo
I can't make myself believe something merely by *wanting* to believe it. People who *can* do that are not entirely sane.
And this is the biggest flaw in Pascal's Wager. Even if it succeeded at convincing me that I should want to believe in god (it has other flaws that make it fail to do that, but even if it did succeed at that...) then I'm still stuck with the fact that my mind can still differentiate between me wanting something to be true and me believing something to be true. They are not the same thing and I simply cannot help it - I can tell they aren't the same thing, and that means I'm not really believing it even if I'd like to pretend I am. What I believe to be true is not entirely under my will to control. And that's a *good* thing. The alternative is insanity.
This immediately brought to mind Pascal's Wager (Score:3, Interesting)
God exists------God does not exist
Wager for God-------Gain all--------Satus quo
Wager against God---Misery----------Status quo
Read all about it here. [stanford.edu]
Please excuse the horrible formatting, I suck at html.
Re:This immediately brought to mind Pascal's Wager (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't make myself believe something merely by *wanting* to believe it. People who *can* do that are not entirely sane.
And this is the biggest flaw in Pascal's Wager. Even if it succeeded at convincing me that I should want to believe in god (it has other flaws that make it fail to do that, but even if it did succeed at that...) then I'm still stuck with the fact that my mind can still differentiate between me wanting something to be true and me believing something to be true. They are not the same thing and I simply cannot help it - I can tell they aren't the same thing, and that means I'm not really believing it even if I'd like to pretend I am. What I believe to be true is not entirely under my will to control. And that's a *good* thing. The alternative is insanity.