I included the wager below for reference since it doesn’t seem to be in the original question.
I think one problem is that belief in the existence of God is probably not sufficient for an infinite payoff (and it’s not 100% clear to everyone what is sufficient). My understanding is that most major religions are meant to teach something more complex than that. Usually something to do with helping others and attaining peace by letting go of selfish desires in favor of loving and kind ones.
But honestly, I think the reason people reject the wager is because they don’t like it. Maybe because infinity is already incomprehensible and uncertainty around infinities just makes it even more difficult to deal with. We generally like certainty or at least ways to be somewhat certain about how uncertain we are and how to become more certain.
So, it’s often easier to just avoid something that doesn’t clearly guarantee a payoff. And switching to either for or against God existing doesn’t seem like it has a clear payoff for most people. Like many things, you can just forget about the question and then it won’t seem to have much impact on your life. Same way most of the time most people just forget about the meaning of life or the possibility of nuclear war and other complex topics that seem to not have clear solutions to most people.
”Either God exists or God does not exist, and you can either wager for God or wager against God. The utilities of the relevant possible outcomes are as follows, where f1, f2, and f3 are numbers whose values are not specified beyond the requirement that they be finite:
God exists
God does not exist
Wager for God
∞
f1
Wager against God
f2
f3
Rationality requires the probability that you assign to God existing to be positive, and not infinitesimal.
Rationality requires you to perform the act of maximum expected utility (when there is one).
Conclusion 1. Rationality requires you to wager for God.
I included the wager below for reference since it doesn’t seem to be in the original question.
I think one problem is that belief in the existence of God is probably not sufficient for an infinite payoff (and it’s not 100% clear to everyone what is sufficient). My understanding is that most major religions are meant to teach something more complex than that. Usually something to do with helping others and attaining peace by letting go of selfish desires in favor of loving and kind ones.
But honestly, I think the reason people reject the wager is because they don’t like it. Maybe because infinity is already incomprehensible and uncertainty around infinities just makes it even more difficult to deal with. We generally like certainty or at least ways to be somewhat certain about how uncertain we are and how to become more certain.
So, it’s often easier to just avoid something that doesn’t clearly guarantee a payoff. And switching to either for or against God existing doesn’t seem like it has a clear payoff for most people. Like many things, you can just forget about the question and then it won’t seem to have much impact on your life. Same way most of the time most people just forget about the meaning of life or the possibility of nuclear war and other complex topics that seem to not have clear solutions to most people.
Pascal’s Wager (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The argument:
”Either God exists or God does not exist, and you can either wager for God or wager against God. The utilities of the relevant possible outcomes are as follows, where f1, f2, and f3 are numbers whose values are not specified beyond the requirement that they be finite:
Rationality requires the probability that you assign to God existing to be positive, and not infinitesimal.
Rationality requires you to perform the act of maximum expected utility (when there is one).
Conclusion 1. Rationality requires you to wager for God.
Conclusion 2. You should wager for God.”