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[Earthquake Damage]

Truth is a funny thing. Truth is flexible, it is variable, what can be true now can be proven to be untrue tomorrow.

Adjust your beliefs accordingly.  Don't cling to what is untrue because it was once (thought) true.

[Wiles]

Truth is a funny thing. Truth is flexible, it is variable, what can be true now can be proven to be untrue tomorrow.

Adjust your beliefs accordingly.  Don't cling to what is untrue because it was once (thought) true.

Who's clinging to untruths? Where is the truth, who has it? Why do two people have different truths, are they both (un)true?

Sometimes I think my dog might have the truth, but I don't understand my dog.

[G-Flex]

I'm getting at:

Code: [Select]

Religious Non-religious
Lucky win win
Unlucky lose lose

Jesus. Seriously?

This entire argument, as I've stated (and others have as well) is EXTREMELY flawed, in that the table is flat-out wrong and incomplete to an infinite degree.

It's not just "religious" vs "nonreligious". It's an infinite set of beliefs vs. the rest of the infinite set of beliefs.

Or what if, as most western religions claim, you have to worship God X in order to get in? What if you worship gods Y or Z? And what if gods Y and Z say the same thing?

Granted, then it's still possible to say "well, there's at least an infinitesimal chance that you're right if you believe in SOMETHING, whereas if you believe in nothing there's NO chance to get in!"

But that's asinine too, because it assumes too many things. Not all religions only let you into some magical afterlife if you believe in them and for no other reason. Not all religions even HAVE an afterlife. Not all religions necessitate that you do anything particular to get into theirs. Not all religions even allow ANYONE into the "good afterlife". So really, no matter what you do, if you're choosing arbitrarily it's a complete fucking toss-up and you might as well just say "well, if I get into some sort of good afterlife, then I do", just go along, and don't let it change your beliefs, because you're just as (infinitesimally) likely to get into some positive afterlife as the next guy who bases his beliefs on some idiotic statistical model.

Personally, rather than changing my entire damn worldview just so I can change my chances of getting into some form of Heaven by... well, absolutely nothing at all, it turns out, I'd rather just live my life and try to hold ideas that I actually find to likely to be true.


Honestly, now, Pascale's Wager was only ever brought up in history because the "christian vs. nonchristian" dichotomy was held in higher regard. Right now, we know it's more complicated than that because we are exposed to more ideas. The argument has been disproven time and time again and doesn't stand up to proper analysis whatsoever. It's known to be flawed by anyone who isn't just trying to defend it to the death for propaganda's sake.

[Torak]

Sailing in the Sea of (Never-Ending) Religious Debate, I can only hope to find my Oar of Emotional Neutrality and attempt to paddle into the Straight of Open-Mindedness to enter the Ocean of Joy.

[RAM]

Anything is possible, for example, winning the lottery without buying a ticket. It could be the result of a clerical error, or a gift bought by someone else, or a ticket gets caught in the wind and lands in your lap, maybe someone tries to steal the money but inputs the wrong number and dumps it into your account... Given the staggering chance of losing the lottery, buying a ticket really doesn't make a significant difference to your odds of winning...

Believing in the absence of divine beings does not prevent belief in existance after life.

According to some interpretations, the christian heaven is something that some people would choose to avoid.

[Servant Corps]

Sailing in the Sea of (Never-Ending) Religious Debate, I can only hope to find my Oar of Emotional Neutrality and attempt to paddle into the Straight of Open-Mindedness to enter the Ocean of Joy.

And, joys upon joys, the Ocean of Joy floods this thread, thereby locking this thread for all enterity!