Argument against Pascal’s wager

A response to an advocate of Pascal’s wager argument for a belief in god

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” Stephen Roberts

Oh my Darwin!

Those who have any intelligence (obviously many don't) realise the fallacy of the Pascal wager.

A) It cost nothing to believe that is not true, obscenely not true.

1) The loss of knowledge and science.

• Religion, the one we are debating, see knowledge as a sin. In fact why are you at SFU? IF you were a true believer, then the only truth is god and the only learning it thought prayer and revelation.

2) The lose of self.

• Religion, the one we are debating, is conformist. You MUST live in one and only one way. The limitation on life, association and thought is so restrictive it is reminiscent of Big Brother in 1984.

3) Violence.

• Religion, the one we are debating, is a violent and abusive thing. Some try and pretend that it is not, but that only makes them false believers. If you are allowed to pick and choose what parts of religion are true, then you are not paying your proper ante and by your own standards are dammed. IF you do follow them, then you may be strapping on the dynamite jacket while you read this, or beating your slaves, or giving your daughter into to a mob to be gang raped. All part of the literal word of God
  

2) A fate worse than atheism?

1) Wrong god.

• What god do you wager on? If a god will condemn someone for unbelief, he would probably be really pissed for believing in the wrong god. So, your fate may be worse than not believing, gods being violent, vengeful and full a wrath. So really, the wise wager, the one to play it safe, would be strict atheism. At least then you could say you did not believe in false god, if he asks why you did not believe, tell him he did not leave enough proof (I stole this line from R. Dawkins book “The God Delusion”, a good read or listen)

2) False belief.

• I think that IF a god existed, he would not think some one lying just to avoid punishment to be a good thing. If lying is a sin, then I think it would not work as a way into heaven. If fact it would likely fast track you to hell.
  

3) Benefits of atheism.

1) Science.

• What has atheism done for you? This, computers and the internet. Science and technology, although not perfect neither is reality. The religious alternative is to sit, starving in a cave waiting, no HOPING for the end of the world. People like Bush, who believe, would look at the nuking of Israel and the victimization of Palestinians as glorious things because they believe it will mean Armageddon is at hand. Every time there is a difference between science and religion, when it comes to how the world works (round earth, sun centered, things smaller than a mustard seed…etc.), science has always been proven correct. And when science does get something wrong, it corrects itself. If religion gets something wrong it burns at the stake those who dare to assume they new more than the "divine" for to correct the error in belief would prove the fallacy of religious faith

2) Medicine.

• And have you had anyone who died? Are they sick? Well I hope you did not send them to a doctor or hospital. IF you believe, then all is gods will and to subvert His will is blasphemy. You should just send them to church and get your friends to pray and hope god is in a good mood. If fact, if you had someone who had medical treatment and have died, they must be in hell, thanks to your beliefs and lack of faith.

3) Morality.

• Slavery is a pious religious belief, sanctioned by god. Rape, murder, and torture as well. It is the atheist and “moderate” religious people, like abolitionist, that allow them to escape the evil that is religious and see the real morality, morality that can only be embraced through empracing atheism, even if some are unwilling to admit it. Think of the morality when a religious person would believe that a science teacher is more dangerous than a pedophile. A sexual predator can only hurt a child in this world, the teacher could lead to eternal damnation. Religion should offend any moral person as it offends me!

There is lots to be gained and infinitely little to be lost if you do not believe. Pascal made the wager comment as a joke, intentional or not. Wisdom can be found in many places but it is our rational and evolutionary instinct that allows us to see them, to picked them from the trash and immoral.
Religion is a cancer on society and society can not survive if it has not been completely removed. “Moderates”, although less damaging in them selves, act as enablers for terrorist, they act as cells that could metastases and revivie the society killers. The faithful are carriers and they also need to be cured. For them, though it is hard because you have remove brainwashing that has been with them all their life. Sunday school is a form of child abuse and those who perpetrate such offence should be locked up. Those who suffer from it need help to see the hypocrisy of religious faith.

• “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”
  Friedrich Nietzsche
  
• “It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so”
  Ernestine Rose
  
• “the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,”
  Steven Weinberg
  
• “Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites.”
  Thomas Jefferson