The Other Pascal

While our social media darling Pedro Pascal is trending like the most delicious contagion, it is perhaps timely to talk about another Pascal. You might know him for his triangle , or maybe even for some of his other mathematical activities.

The interesting thing about Blaise Pascal (at least for us philosophy types) is his work in philosophy. A member of the Jansenist religious movement (deemed a heresy by the Catholic Church), Pascal grew up in provincial France.

Though he lived a brief life, Pascal achieved much in his 39 years. His mathematical theories are still referenced in classrooms. Pascal also adopted some of the first public transportation. His religious views inspired him to write on philosophy as well as science and mathematics.

Pascal the Philosopher

Pascal reportedly received ecstatic visions of a religious nature, inspiring him to write on theological and philosophical matters. He joined the Jansenist religious movement and irritated some Jesuits and the rest of the Catholic Church with his Lettres provenciales (1656).

Jansenists (a mocking nickname from their Church opponents) shared most beliefs with the Catholic Church of the day. Their main difference, however, lay in their views on free will and its relation to salvation.

Free Will: A Contentious Christian Concept

Free will , a Christian concept which states that human beings were given an autonomy of choice in their behaviors from their divine creator (AKA God). As such, God, for instance, tells Adam and Eve they can eat all the fruit, but don’t nom on the Tree of Knowledge.

Since Adam and Eve are not puppets of their creator, they can choose whether they are into following this or not. In the instance of Original Sin, when Eve nabs up the fruit from the tree, from the snake, she decided that going against God’s will was the thing to do.

Of course, we can go into all the ways people over the centuries have claimed this plays a key role in human nature, but that is for another post. A very long one. And probably a mostly boring one.

The point of the matter is, when we hit the time of Jesus, the idea of free will really comes into its own. Free will plays a key role in Mary’s fiat (accepting her role as the mother of God [Jesus]), and the disciples throwing away their nets and following Jesus around.

Where the concept gets a bit dodgy is when you have the events that lead up to the crucifixion. For instance, Jesus mentions that Peter will deny him three times before the rooster wakes up and crows. If Peter has free will, then he could either deny Jesus or mention Jesus is his bro when asked. He does not do the former.

So, theologically, Christians have debated about whether or not human beings have free will, or to what extent do we have it? And importantly, if God is omniscient (all-knowing), then how can we have free will, if he knows what we are and will be up to?

And this is where we come back to the Jansenists. One of the main tenets of Jansenism (similar to some Protestant denominations) is that, even if free will is a thing, it’s not remotely necessary for the grace required for our eternal salvation.

In other words: your actions in the world are not the main thing that will get you to the pearly gates. So, you can do good stuff all you want, but in the end God is gonna give it to you or not.

Let’s Play a Game

So, back to our boy Blaise. In his Lettres provenciales, he made the establishment mad. Having done that, however, he moved forward with the Pensées (which translates to “Thoughts”). In Pensées, Pascal takes two of his favorite things, math and his religion, and combines them into something unique.

Pascal had been trained as a mathematician since a child, so it makes sense when his argument for the existence of God relies on probability. This argument is known as “Pascal’s Wager,” as it is a thought experiment in which he invites us to make the biggest gamble of our lives.

Let’s play a game, Pascal says. The world is a weird and crappy place, for sure. And there are a lot of people out there who think, because it is like that, God can’t exist. After all, how can a good God let an evil thing exist?

But wait. What if that is not all? Pascal suggests that it can be very confusing to want to do the good thing, want to live truthfully, especially when you don’t know if there is any point in doing so.

And you want to know if God exists so that there is a point, but, unlike others such as Descartes or Anselm , who have suggested ontological arguments for the existence of God, Pascal takes another direction.

Look, Pascal says to you from across the table, at the end of the day, it’s not something you are gonna know, because God can’t be grasped with the human capacity for reason. According to Pascal:

Getting in the Game

And this is where it gets good. Pascal brings us back to the game. Looking at you from across the table, he suggests: What if this game I set up for us is something you are obligated to play?

Don’t think of our friend Pascal as the little dude from the Saw movies. Rather, consider him as a friendly GM. Nonetheless, what you have to stake in this wager is a lot. What are we wagering?

We are wagering whether or not God exists. Since we can’t comprehend this with reason, the best we’ve got is making a gamble on whether or not he exists. So let’s get started.

You’ve got two sides of this wager: either God exists or God does not exist. If God does not exist, we haven’t really lost anything, as our false belief will only have kept us doing good in the world for the sake of a nonexistent God and we just go to the earth at the end.

If, however, God exists, we have the opportunity to have an “eternity of happiness.” We will, in our belief, be far happier and at the end of our days, we will have a far better reward than a person who has no belief in God.

To simplify: