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Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

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Journal of the American Society for Church Growth

2006

Probability

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Pascal’S Wager: A Good Bet For Personal Evangelism, Charles H. Reilly Apr 2006

Pascal’S Wager: A Good Bet For Personal Evangelism, Charles H. Reilly

Journal of the American Society for Church Growth

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French scientist and mathematician, argued that it is advantageous to believe in or to “bet on” God because the rewards for doing so are at least as great as the rewards for not believing in God, regardless of whether or not God exists. His decision theoretic argument is commonly referred to as Pascal’s Wager. It is unlikely that everyone has the same estimates of the rewards for believing in God or for not believing in God that Pascal had. Consequently, a series of five questions, based on Pascal’s Wager, is suggested here for personalizing Pascal’s Wager. …