Chapter 1

Christ Divided

The Game of Life

As a child I remember watching the television program called "To Tell the Truth". The premise of the show was for some interesting character to show up along with two other impostors. A panel of celebrities would then question them and try to determine who the real one was. It was a lot of fun to watch. In the game of life however, the stakes aren't just a mater of entertainment or money. They are far higher.

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, a religious philosopher, and an important contributor to game logic. One of his marks of fame was known as Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) and it is about the logical consequences of one's belief in God. It was recorded in the Pensées, a posthumous collection of notes made by Pascal towards his unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics. The following is an explanation from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

The Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing. In Pascal's assessment, it is inexcusable not to investigate this issue:

Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly.¹

Again from Wikipedia, here is the wager:

If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is....

..."God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? According to reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.

Do not, then, reprove for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it. "No, but I blame them for having made, not this choice, but a choice; for again both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault, they are both in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all."

Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose then? Let us see.

Then Pascal proceeds to set up the logical consequences of the choice that all must make as follows

* You live as though God exists.

o If God exists, you go to heaven: your gain is infinite.

o If God does not exist, you gain nothing & lose nothing.

* You live as though God does not exist.

o If God exists, you go to hell: your loss is infinite.

o If God does not exist, you gain nothing & lose nothing.

With these possibilities, and the principles of statistics, Pascal attempted to demonstrate that the only prudent course of action is to live as if God exists.

Actually, given the recent discoveries in medicine that point to provable benefits of living the Christian lifestyle as taught by the Bible, the only logical course is that of the Christian, for even if God did not exist, you would still gain something.

Summary

So in the game of life, you must play, you must decide. The stakes are much higher than in "To Tell the Truth". Logic demands that if Christianity is correct or not, it is the obvious choice since after all, your life depends on it. The next question is WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY ANYWAY?

1Pascal Pensees, 195