I’m not sure I buy her last argument. Pascal’s Wager does seem like a reductio ad absurdum of expected utility theory. Because if you accepted, it then, by equivalent logic, you would have to perform every other belief, no matter how improbable, as long as it had an infinite payoff. For example, somebody could tell me that if I stepped on a crack, the universe will end. And since there’s a non-zero chance that they’re correct, I couldn’t step on any cracks ever again. As long as these potentially infinite payoff outcomes aren’t mutually exclusive, you would have to accept them. And there’s no bound on the number of them. Imagine being OCD in this world! Since this is clearly insane, there must be a fundamental flaw with how expected utility theory deals with infinities. Yet another reason to embrace virtue ethics :)
In theory, you could be stuck doing bizarre things like that. But I don’t think you would in this world. Most reasonably taking infinity seriously, probably involves converting to Christianity or if not that Islam or if not that some other established religions.
Major religions normally condemn occultic practices and superstitions from outside that practice. If someone comes up to you and claims to be a demon that will inflict suffering, someone who has already bet on the Christian God or Allah for instance, can just say go away- I’m already maximizing my chance of infinite reward and minimizing my chance of infinite punishment.
I’m not sure I buy her last argument. Pascal’s Wager does seem like a reductio ad absurdum of expected utility theory. Because if you accepted, it then, by equivalent logic, you would have to perform every other belief, no matter how improbable, as long as it had an infinite payoff. For example, somebody could tell me that if I stepped on a crack, the universe will end. And since there’s a non-zero chance that they’re correct, I couldn’t step on any cracks ever again. As long as these potentially infinite payoff outcomes aren’t mutually exclusive, you would have to accept them. And there’s no bound on the number of them. Imagine being OCD in this world! Since this is clearly insane, there must be a fundamental flaw with how expected utility theory deals with infinities. Yet another reason to embrace virtue ethics :)
In theory, you could be stuck doing bizarre things like that. But I don’t think you would in this world. Most reasonably taking infinity seriously, probably involves converting to Christianity or if not that Islam or if not that some other established religions.
Major religions normally condemn occultic practices and superstitions from outside that practice. If someone comes up to you and claims to be a demon that will inflict suffering, someone who has already bet on the Christian God or Allah for instance, can just say go away- I’m already maximizing my chance of infinite reward and minimizing my chance of infinite punishment.