I've Invented a New Phrase About Eternity, "Homer's Wager"


We've all heard Pascal's Wager. It goes something like this, "If you don't know whether there is a God or a heaven, it is safer to believe in them. It costs you nothing to believe but not believing and being wrong is far most costly."

Frenchman, Blaise Pascal, lived in the 1600's. He was a noted mathematician and philosopher. Those who write the Homer Simpson TV cartoon show are smarter than Pascal. They recognize Pascal was a narrow person with limited or no experience debating those who do not believe. Homer's argument has defeated Pascal forever.

Homer said, "What if we worship the wrong god and the real god gets madder and madder." Therein lies the Achilles Heel of Pascal. Pascal did not know if there was a real god, several gods or no god.  But, if there were several he had no way of knowing which was the best one. 

During the decade or so I've been blogging countless times commenters have thought they were helping me by pointing in one way or another to Pascal. "Keep this terrible blog going and you will find yourself in hell for eternity" is one way it is shouted. Or, "What harm would it do you to believe in case you are wrong and God is waiting to judge you."

For whatever reason, such commenters are unable to get their arms around one simple fact: There may be no god, many gods or the God they believe in may exist. If there is no god, all the god thing wastes a perfectly good part of your life. If there is more than one god you are taking a risk by betting on only one. Of course, if they are right they will have the last laugh. 

But we will never know if they are right because no information comes back from the grave. And, the source of information about the "correct" god, the Bible, is suspect. 

If one is a conservative, he/she will be careful in life and try to avoid unnecessary risks. A conservative person who believes there is a god or gods should hedge his/her bet like Homer Simpson. Be safe not sorry.  


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