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Andrew66 wrote
Hope - as I've explained, arguably, could be interpreted as a bare minimal belief...
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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.
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Andrew66 wrote
You can play Pascal's wager for Allah. Pascal's wager of Jehova. Pascal's wager for Jesus - its up to the player to place their bet.
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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.
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Andrew66 wrote
In my humble opinion the "best" bet is Jesus. Biggest impact factor. Only God with solid historical evidence supporting a miracle - Resurrection.
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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.