g to a product of sincerity of habit? If you start to act you believe something then believe will the converse follow as well? If I decide to believe in God then act like I do, according to Pascal my belief would become stronger. But if I decide to change my mind and start to act like I do not believe in God, will that belief also manifest? This logic reduces your belief to a mere product of habit and is anything but sincere. Pascal goes on to outline the benefits of this belief and why it pays more to believe than it does not to (…hence the title, The Wager) that God exists (Pascal, 78). The choice that God does or does not exist is set against the assumption that He actually does or does not exists, and the consequences are drawn from there. If you believe that God exists and He does, you stand to gain infinite happiness, if He does not, its only a small temporal loss. If you believe that God does not exist and He does you gain nothing and lose everything, but if He actually does not exist, you only have a small temporal gain. According to this arrangement you stand to gain more on all sides if you just believe that god exists, because if he does that means eternal happiness for you, and its only a small loss if He does not. At least you lived a moral and righteous life that benefited you and those around you.The first issue I have with this set up right here is that it seems to assume automatically that if you believe something to be then you stand to reap the benefits of that belief. If someone lives a life based on totally fulfilling every impulse that comes across his mind while at the same time holding to the belief that God exists, does that person stand a better chance at receiving infinite happiness than the person who lives morally but has no belief in God? And even if you hold that belief and act accordingly, you’ll never know if how you are acting is the proper way, which leaves the ultimate decis...
