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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have thought and thought about this. How can anyone believe religion is real? To me it is all superstition. I can understand why some people need it— it gives them community, structure, for some, morals and for others excuses to commit atrocities.  But really, what separates idol worship from Jesus worship or monotheism? In my mind it is all a bunch of made up nonsense that is not grounded in reality. It’s crazy to think that highly intelligent people believe all this. [/quote]

Pascal’s wager. If you don’t believe, your kinda an idiot - even to those of us who are scientists with PhDs and study the universe with numbers.[/quote]

NP. Pascal’s wager isn’t exactly an expression of faith. It’s a cost benefit analysis. Pure game theory.

The wager is that you can’t actually know if God exists, so you might as well hedge the bet that brings the greater upside. Inherent in this is the “not knowing.” Isn’t that agnosticism at its core? [/quote]

Why would you believe in a thing you don't know if it exists?  Especially a thing in a state where conditions are exactly the same if it does not exist as if it does?

That makes zero sense.  And people don't take that approach with ANY other belief except for god.  Which is what makes it 100% a rationalization designed to simply enable the belief.

That's all Pascal's wager actually is - a rationalization for a presupposed belief. [/quote]

It’s not rationalization for an existing belief. It’s an argument that one is better off living *as if they believed* based on a calculation of upsides vs downsides that lie along different paths.

It’s a cold calculus, that’s all.

FWIW, Pascal actually did believe. But his wager is game theory. [/quote]

And yet... no one raised an atheist changes their position because of Pascal's wager.

Which is why it is 100% a rationalization enabling someone to hold on to a belief for which their logical mind knows has no logical or evidentiary basis.[/quote]

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