Pascal's Cowards
Most of you will be aware of Pascal's Wager, and indeed, of those of you who aren't aware of it by name, most of you will likely have heard it without knowing what it's called.
In the briefest of terms, here it is: Blaise Pascal, a 17th Century French Mathematician, posited this argument in favour of his religion: If you're an atheist and you're right, then life is good enough for you, but there's no afterlife reward. If you're a christian and you're right, then life is good, and then you get a GREAT afterlife. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, then you will suffer horrible crap forever. If you're a christian and you're wrong, then no big deal, right? Therefore, the only good ending is in being a christian, the only bad ending is in being an atheist, and therefore everyone should join his religion.
It's a primitive argument, that's been refuted so many times in so many ways that when - as happened yesterday - I have some moron try to throw it at me, I can only laugh. Laugh and spend an hour or so working on a complex macro image so that from now on, I can just post a fucking link rather than waste time making the same arguments over and over again.
Also, I decided to have some fun with it, since I can no longer take this matter seriously.
In the briefest of terms, here it is: Blaise Pascal, a 17th Century French Mathematician, posited this argument in favour of his religion: If you're an atheist and you're right, then life is good enough for you, but there's no afterlife reward. If you're a christian and you're right, then life is good, and then you get a GREAT afterlife. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, then you will suffer horrible crap forever. If you're a christian and you're wrong, then no big deal, right? Therefore, the only good ending is in being a christian, the only bad ending is in being an atheist, and therefore everyone should join his religion.
It's a primitive argument, that's been refuted so many times in so many ways that when - as happened yesterday - I have some moron try to throw it at me, I can only laugh. Laugh and spend an hour or so working on a complex macro image so that from now on, I can just post a fucking link rather than waste time making the same arguments over and over again.
Also, I decided to have some fun with it, since I can no longer take this matter seriously.