Have you ever heard of Blaise Pascal, and if so what do you think of him?

[Julie4]

[Bluemax]

Mathematician and philosopher. Creator of Pascal's Wager. If you bet God exists and he does, you win infinite happiness. If you bet God exists and he doesn't, you lose a few good times. If you bet God doesn't exist and he does, you are damned and your loss is infinite. If you bet God doesn't exist and he doesn't, you gain a few good times. Hence betting that God exists is the safer bet (minor loss if you're wrong, infinite gain if you're right). I believe he contemplated probabilities a lot. Beyond that, I confess I don't know much about him.

[slatyb]

Brilliant mathematician. Lousy philosopher. Pascal's wager is absurd.

[Julie4]

In fact, Pascal's philosophy could not be reduced only to Pascal's wager

[Bluemax]

I tend to think his wager is absurd, too. However, I'm curious why *you* think it's absurd.

[slatyb]

@Bluemax Because it assumes that there it's a binary choice: Christianity or atheism. But there have been thousands of religions, and no one can follow them all.

[Bluemax]

That was my problem with it, too.

[RyanEC]

I know he was a prominent French mathematician in the 1600s but I don’t really have much of an opinion on him.

[msc545]

Well, he DID invent Pascal's triangle, so he could not have been all bad

[Jennz6]

Nope, who is he, what is he known for?