What if You're Wrong and I'm Right?
2000

This is one of the most common and puerile of the arguments that Christians have memorized to hurl at the unbeliever. It goes something like this-- the Christian says:

The argument in its original form is called Pascal's Wager.

Well, I would like to answer this question, once and for all, from my perspective. It is a fair question, and one that deserves a thoughtful answer. The answer I give is not one that is likely to have crossed the mind of the average theologian.

Assume for a moment that the hours of your life are like grains of sand in an hourglass. That means that there are a limited number of hours in your life, and then they run out. No one knows, of course, how many grains of sand we each have in our own hourglasses; but we know with certainty that it is a finite amount. This is a reasonable assumption that everyone should agree with.

Now, imagine (if you can) that the atheists are right.

If we, the atheists, are right, then this life is all we have. There is nothing more to come. This life, these hours, are your only opportunity to experience your existence-- to experience joy, love, art, pleasure, happiness. Therefore, every wasted hour, every hour spent in chasing an illusion, a phantom, means that some of your precious grains of sand have been stolen from your hourglass and tossed away. You have, in a sense, shortened your life-- the only existence you will ever know.

Every hour you have read a bible, sat in a pew, engaged in intolerant condemnation based upon biblical laws, went door-to-door trying to convince someone else of your delusion, or contrived outlandish explanations for religious absurdities, you have squandered away the irreplaceable hours of your life, and they can never be reclaimed. You have wasted your one and only life wrapped up in a mythology that never was. How sad this is. I actually pity people who have been so deceived.

Consider this analogy to help you realize the importance of your life's moments. Imagine that you receive the news that you have a terminal illness and you only have one week to live. How would you spend that time-- each hour?  Would you waste them in fruitless, time-consuming activities that amount to nothing? Like praying?  Or would you spend that time creating as much joy for yourself and those around you?

Another thing to think about is this: What if the Muslims are right? What if the Buddhists are right? What if the Shintoists are right? What if the Hindus are right?  You might get reincarnated into a worm!  What about the Jews, or the Catholics? If ANY one of the hundreds of different sects are right, then you are believing the wrong thing-- and what happens to you? Think of the risks you are taking! The VAST MAJORITY of the world does not believe the same as you.  How can billions of Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists all be wrong?  They all think you're the one going to hell.

Do you, the Christian, think you have lost nothing in this wager? I say you have bet (and lost) your intellectual integrity. That is not something I would gamble with. You have sacrificed your reason on the altar of your god, in hopes of future reward. The bribery of eternal life can make you believe anything...

What if my understanding of the world is wrong? What if all the evidence for a natural origin of life and humanity has been misinterpreted by all the scientific and educational institutions of the world, and my godless view of the universe is invalid? Well, to quote Robert Green Ingersoll:

"Why," they say to me, "suppose all this should turn out to be true, and you should come to the day of Judgment and find all these things to be true.  What would you do then?"

I would walk up like a man, and say, "I was mistaken."

"And suppose God was about to pass judgment upon you, what would you say?"

I would say to him: "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." Why not? I am told that I must render good for evil. I am told that if smitten on one cheek I must turn the other. I am told that I must overcome evil with good. I am told that I must love my enemies; and will it do for this God who tells me to love my enemies to damn his?  No, it will not do. It will not do."

But I don't think this is a situation which is going to occur. I don't accept it, because there is no reason, no evidence, to do so. I am unconvinced.
(See: Why I am Unconvinced)

Some have answered this argument by saying that it is not for God to do as He would have done to Him, for he is the Lawgiver. Is this a classic case of "Do as I say, not as I do"?  Would you tell your five year old son not to strike other children, and yet as soon as he talks back to you, you slap him in the mouth? That would make you a hypocrite.

The Christians say that it is by the freewill of every person that they believe the bible is the word of God-- that a man should use his reason; but if he honestly concludes that the Bible is not a revelation from God, and dies with that conclusion in his mind, he will be tormented forever! They say: "Read and decide for yourself," but then they add: "Believe, or be damned forever." It's like telling you to make a choice by holding a gun to your head.

They say: "No matter how unreasonable the Bible may appear to you, you must believe. No matter how impossible the miracles may seem, you must believe. No matter how cruel the laws, your heart must approve them all!" The Christian says: "You are free to decide. God is good, and he gives you the liberty to choose."

Some liberty...

Well, I have chosen. I have honestly weighed in my mind the evidence for both sides, and have reached a conclusion based on reason. I see no evidence for the existence of the divine, no basis for the claim of revelation, and no proof of the supernatural.  On the contrary, I see a world that is natural, that could very well have been brought about by purely natural processes, and one that is random-- it has in it both acts of terrible violence and tragedy (accidents and catastrophes), as well as lucky and joyous events-- all happening at random and without rhyme or reason.

If you must tell me I am to accept the Savior Jesus Christ, then you will first have to convince me of the existence of such a person, and then prove to me that he was in fact a divine spirit capable of working miracles, and that the places he spoke of, namely heaven and hell, are real places that we will go to after death.  Of course, you will also have to show me evidence, real evidence, that our existence continues on in some form after our demise. (See: Death)

I find the idea that we will be eternally condemned or blessed based upon an intellectual conviction, upon a belief, to be a contemptible and laughable idea, and the weakest of the world's philosophies.

Returning to Pascal's Wager, it is assumed by the Christian that the belief in his religion carries no harmful effects. But this is not true. Belief in god is not harmless. Adding up all the people who have ever been killed in the name of religion, this becomes apparent. There are human consequences for god-belief. Millions of people have been killed by other people who did not agree with them on the subject of religion.

There is also the personal damage of accepting an illusory world-view. Every month, news stories from around the country reveal cases where some parent killed their child because they thought the child was possessed, or the parents didn't take their child to the doctor for some treatable illness-- and the child died. Or when some man beat his wife to death because of his God-given right to dominate her. Or dozens of cases of pastors, priests and reverends molesting children. Christians will automatically say "they weren't REAL Christians, they didn't understand God's word". That's irrelevant. They have reaped the dangers of accepting a world-view that is an illusion-- based on rules that aren't real. Belief in the supernatural is HARMFUL. Anyone using the Pascal's Wager argument against unbelief is embracing an irresponsible position.

Consider modern-day cults: Heaven's Gate cult, Jonestown, the Branch Davidians. These people all died because they accepted a worldview that was dominated by the supernatural. The Society for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.... that was the name of the group in Africa that killed more than a thousand of it's members-- many of them children. If these people were skeptical of the claims of religion, they would be alive today.