But as I understand it the whole point of the wager is the heavenly pay off. In that case, you can’t just say “I pick heaven” and defer the part where you pick a religion, as that influences whether or not you get the payoff. So I think this is less like a binary decision and more like picking the right card out of a deck.
It does seem to me, if you think the general reasoning of the wager is sound, that the most rational thing to do is to pick one of the cards and hope for the best, as opposed to not picking any of them.
You could for example pick Christianity or Islam, but also regularly pray to the “one true god” whoever he may be, and respectfully ask for forgiveness if your faith is misplaced. This might be a way of minimising the chances of going to hell, although there could be even better ways on further reflection.
Having said all that I’m atheist and never pray. But I’m not necessarily sure that’s the best way to be…
While I still disagree that the decision is non-binary, you do bring up a possibility I hadn’t thought of which is that NO ACTION could be the BEST ACTION if you think practicing the wrong religion makes you more likely to go to hell and less likely to go to heaven.
Although now I think about it, that wouldn’t imply no action, rather that you should encourage atheism, behaviour generally agreed upon across religions, and possibly converting people from one religion to a more likely one.
But as I understand it the whole point of the wager is the heavenly pay off. In that case, you can’t just say “I pick heaven” and defer the part where you pick a religion, as that influences whether or not you get the payoff. So I think this is less like a binary decision and more like picking the right card out of a deck.
It does seem to me, if you think the general reasoning of the wager is sound, that the most rational thing to do is to pick one of the cards and hope for the best, as opposed to not picking any of them.
You could for example pick Christianity or Islam, but also regularly pray to the “one true god” whoever he may be, and respectfully ask for forgiveness if your faith is misplaced. This might be a way of minimising the chances of going to hell, although there could be even better ways on further reflection.
Having said all that I’m atheist and never pray. But I’m not necessarily sure that’s the best way to be…
While I still disagree that the decision is non-binary, you do bring up a possibility I hadn’t thought of which is that NO ACTION could be the BEST ACTION if you think practicing the wrong religion makes you more likely to go to hell and less likely to go to heaven.
Although now I think about it, that wouldn’t imply no action, rather that you should encourage atheism, behaviour generally agreed upon across religions, and possibly converting people from one religion to a more likely one.