Pascal's Wager, Best Answer I Have Heard (page 2)

The Oracle

Excellent video.

I don't think you can legitimately find fault with his reasoning.

I do not believe he made either of those blunders that you itemized, botchtower.

Peace,

The Oracle

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

The guy in the video makes some of the classic blunders.

#1 The Bible's story of the naked lady, talking snake, and forbidden fruit, justify any injustice, unfairness, or unreasonableness on God's part.

#2 God proved his existance and love by sending his only-begotten son to earth 2000 years ago to be mercilessly murdered by the religious leaders that were following the laws that God gave to Moses around 1500 years before that.

#3 God's gonna kill everybody that isn't a JW very soon now.

Other than that, the dude states his case well.

undercover

The guy in the video makes some of the classic blunders.

The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well- known is this: "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"!

Diest

You are so right undercover.....

Terry

I know what DEIST means.

What does DIEST mean?

King Solomon

JWs play their own version of Pascal's Wager, esp when it comes to whether or not to shun their own children who've been DFed.

If they DO shun, they make God "Very Happy" BUT they lose on having a relationship with their children, possibly for an eternity.

If they DON'T shun, they make God "Very Sad" and face a eternity in Hades, being conscious of nothing (think of it as a permanent time-out). But they don't lose a relationship with their children in the here and now.

Being that JWs don't believe in Hell, the decision is made a bit more difficult than for a Catholic , i.e. JWs don't expect to be punished to eternal torment for sinning (much less on account of siding with their own offspring)! Instead, JWs expected to be dead, killed in Armageddon, which is similar to death experienced by anyone on the Planet who dies today with no expectation of resurrection or reincarnation: there's no awareness, nada, nothing. You just don't exist.

HOWEVER, if they DO shun their children, they win an ETERNITY in paradise! Frolicking with friendly lions, engaging in satisfying physical labor, and above all: having good, clean family fun! Think of it like going to Epcot Center/Disneyworld, except living there for an ETERNITY!

You should be able to see that for a JW, the decision is heavily-biased in favor of REWARD, while the reduced penalty of PUNISHMENT (compared to say, a Catholic, who believes in Hell and eternal torment). That imbalance can induce some guilt in the parent (or, it SHOULD...).

Hence the JW's decision not to shun is similar to deciding to turn down a really great vacation to Epcot (for an eternity) in order to stay home with that family member, vs leaving the family member behind so YOU can go to Epcot (but you will never see them again). "See ya', wouldn't want to be ya'!!"

Now THERE'S a loverly message of conditional love that ANY parent should be sending to their children: "I love you, really, but if it means I have to forego MY eternity in paradise, then sorry, but you're on our own; it's every man for themselves..."

Farkel

Terry,

: I know what DEIST means.

:What does DIEST mean?

A typo when he signed up here. An honest mistake. He is a deist.

Farkel

botchtowersociety

At least he didn't type dieist. They don't get much of a chance to practice.

WinstonSmith

I enjoyed watching this and the reasoning behind it is very sound. It is a great explanation and it will no doubt help some people 'get' what it means.

I did however think that after holding our attention for almost 8 minutes with good arguments and appeal to reason he blew a lot of the goodwill he built up by saying, as his last words 'lucky I'm not wrong'. He was putting himself across well right up to the last seconds. One of the biggest turn offs for people learning more about athiesm is the smarmy "I'm so right and you're an idiot for believing in God" attitude that some have.

This would appeal to a lot more people who are genuinely seeking if it was about 5 seconds shorter.

Diest

Who is they BTS?

Pascal's Wager, Best Answer I Have Heard

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