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The Judge wrote
No argument here. Perhaps you thought there was. There isn't. It is WHAT you hope for that counts surely, yet you seem to be fixated on merely hoping that there is something rather than nothing.
I'm dismayed that it is this very fact that you have articulated that is in fact a major criticism of the wager itself; you just don't see it do you?
Let's see if I can help: There is a decision theory matrix of god vs no god and belief vs non-belief(courtesy of Wikipedia). But here's the rub; it doesn't specifiy which god becasue Pascal (a cat-lick) had no concept of any other gods.
If one plays the wager in favour of say Quezoacotl, one may "hope" that one is positioned in the infinite gain box of the matrix.
However when one dies and finds out that say a different deity exists (e.g. Vishnu) then the very "hope / belief" that one had is what has now changed one's position in the matrix of belief in god / god actually exists from infinite gain to infinite loss.
Essentially due to the multiplicity of gods throughout human history "hoping / believing" in the wrong one results in the same outcome as believing in none.
The "deity multiplicity problem" is effectively a reductio ad absurdum and it is summed up neatly by paraphrasing Richard Dawkins thus:
We are all atheists about most gods that have ever been thought up. I just go one more god further than you.
Just had to leave this in there for comedy value. FYI if you base your "faith" on "evidence" then you don't get to call it faith.
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Judge
With respect most of what your saying is just bull shit.
Why make a simple discussion difficult?.
Belief in any God (broadly speaking, supreme being) and loving they Neighbour - this is a reasonable way to play the wager - hopefully a God, if at least one exists (Allah, Jehova, etc.) will not be so finicky that you got their name wrong.
And I'm not convinced that there is a finite loss if God does not exist. Loving their Neighbour is a lifestyle which often provides real life kick backs and benefits!
But just in case salvation is based on guessing the "correct" Diety - as I've explained Jesus (Christianity) is arguably the best bet, because at least there is a historic resurrection account whereby a miracle is attested to authenticate the Diety.
One doesn't have to play of course, if you are a strong Atheist (capital A) then the wager is a complete waste of time. But if you rank say 6/ 7 as an Atheist (this is where Dawkins places himself) - then playing the wager is not illogical, if no other reason than to cover your ass from an "infinite" loss.