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Blaise Pascal: God
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Pascal was ... one of the founders of the theory of probability and statistics. This originated with problems in gambling, but soon spread to serious applications in all the social sciences including politics (for some modern ramifications see also cost-benefit analysis; decision theory). His most famous argument in probability is ‘Pascal's Wager’ which has been described as a game-theoretic argument in favour of believing in God (or at least trying to believe, or going through the motions of believing). God either exists or He does not; if He exists He rewards believers with eternal life and punishes unbelievers with eternal punishment. Even if the probability of God's existence is very small, the penalty of eternal punishment is so devastating that the expected value of believing in God will always exceed that of not believing in Him. Given Pascal's premisses, the argument is valid; but all depends on God being the particular sort of God posited in the second premiss.
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After this time Pascal made visits to the Jansenist monastery Port-Royal des Champs about 30 km south west of Paris. He began to publish anonymous works on religious topics, eighteen Provincial Letters being published during 1656 and early 1657. These were written in defence of his friend Antoine Arnauld, an opponent of the Jesuits and a defender of Jansenism, who was on trial before the faculty of theology in Paris for his controversial religious works. Pascal's most famous work in philosophy is Pensées, a collection of personal thoughts on human suffering and faith in God which he began in late 1656 and continued to work on during 1657 and 1658. This work contains 'Pascal's wager' which claims to prove that belief in God is rational with the following argument.
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In addition to the childhood marvels previously mentioned, Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. In 1653, Pascal wrote his Traité du triangle arithmétique ("Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle") in which he described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, now called Pascal's triangle. In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of probabilities. The friend was the Chevalier de Méré, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. From this discussion, the notion of expected value was introduced. Pascal later (in the Pensées) used a probabilistic argument, Pascal's Wager, to justify belief in God and a virtuous life.
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Pascal was a devout Roman Catholic who had a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ. He was influenced by the teachings of the Jansenists, a heretical Catholic movement which stressed God's grace in salvation and the importance of leading a lifestyle consistent with one's faith.2 Towards the end of his life, Pascal began to write and gather notes for a book on Christian apologetics. Unfortunately, Pascal died before he completed the project. A few years after his death the notes were published. It was entitled Pensees, which means "thoughts."3
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In Pensees, Pascal makes the case for Christianity as against the rationalism of Descartes and the skepticism of Montaigne. For Pascal, God is to be known through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith does not come through reason, it is a gift from God. Man's need for God comes when he recognizes his misery apart from God and realizes that nothing else can satisfy that need. Although God is to be know by faith, Pascal maintains that the evidences for Christianity are great: the prophecies, the miracles, the witness of history, and the self-authentication of Scripture.
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Pascal nearly lost his life in an accident in 1654. The horses pulling his carriage bolted and the carriage was left hanging over a bridge above the Seine River. Although he was not physically hurt, this accident affected him psychologically. He soon pledged his life to Christianity. Much of his work was then centered on theology. In his work Pensees, Pascal claims to prove that belief in God is rational with the following argument.
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