Life is about asking questions, so keep asking as long as we could.

Among of all posts I have written in this season, this might be the most personal one. It started with when I had dinner with my friends, and out of nowhere, we were discussing the existence of God. (Yes, if you are a friend with me, this is not a weird thing to discuss.) One of them then said, "not believing in God is just simply dangerous. If you believe in God, and indeed God is waiting for you after your death, you will get to heaven. If there is none, then that's it. It's is a different case if you do not believe in God. If God does exist, then you will go to hell. If God turned out not to exist, then you were just right, but no benefit after all."

This took me back to a wager induced by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and scientist. The wager is famously known as - as you guessed - Pascal's wager. In a nutshell, it could be written like this:

Shortly, believing in God has no disadvantages, and not believing in God has no advantages.

It Looks Right, At First

At first, it makes sense. The concept that God hates people who do not believe in Him just feels right at first, but if we dive deeper, I personally found a deeper meaning behind this simple-not-so-simple wager. There are a lot of discussions and takes on this topic, feel free to read any interpretation, as I will share mine today.

First of all, discussing our fate based on this wager is pretty ridiculous, since we have to establish the same base of this wager: God hates atheists and loves believers. No matter what an atheist does - he could be good for his whole life - but as long as he did not believe in God, he will go to hell. The same thing for the opposition - if you believe in God, no matter what you did throughout your life - you will be safe. Believing that this wager is completely true also means believing in this concept.

Let's first just assume that the concept is right, is there any fact that could support this notion? Of course no fact, since the whole idea of heaven and afterlife cannot be proved in this world. However, a lot of believers I talked to actually find the concept does not correspond to major religions. Believing in God does not mean enough to secure a place in the afterlife. Having God as a guide of your life is what matters according to them. 

Asking Your Faith

I agree with the idea of "having God as a guide of your life". I think it is a beautiful concept that leads a lot of people to a wonderful life. People act nice to each other, and part of this is because of their belief. So, is there anything wrong then?

If believing makes you live a better life, then congratulation to you. Finding what matters in life is a challenge for a lot of people, and by finding God as a suitable guide for you is a huge accomplishment. However, I want to talk on behalf of people who feel indoctrinated and jailed because of their belief.

As I have said in previous posts, the indoctrination in a lot of religion is insidious, and for a lot of people, it is actually irritating. I have to cite what Mikhael said from the previous two episodes, "the problem with some religious teaching is we ban people to ask. Doubting their own faith is actually a part of developing it." Read that again: doubting your faith. 

Asking your own faith is always looked as something taboo, God does not like it. You should never ask too much is an unwritten rule of almost every religion. However, I believe a lot of people actually are "tempted" to do this. How many of you actually never asking about your own faith? This will leads us to the next part: Dawkins famous "spectrum of theistic probability"

The Spectrum of Theistic Probability

The idea of this spectrum is actually pretty simple. It is a way to categorise someone's view on the existence of God from category 1 to 7, with category 1 means God definitely does exist and 7 means God definitely does not exist, with category 4 means there is 50:50 probability. 

I personally find that this idea is much better than categorising people with a theist or an atheist. People develop along with their life, they could learn and experiences new things and change their mind, so it is actually quite harsh to separate people with a wall of atheism.

However, I have to give my quite harsh opinion on this topic. If someone has always been at either end of the spectrum, I just think it is either blind or stupid. If you always believe God exists, without even asking and doubting His existence, not even once, I actually feel pity and admire you at the same time, since I just do not get how someone could never ask about his own belief, especially when it is about a conceptual higher power.

If you always believe that God does not exist, I think you are blind. Either you always live happily served by a lot of people around you that makes you feel like a god, or you just heartless. I am sure everyone always has their ups and downs in life, and a lot of time it is connected with the existence of God. We tend to blame something on something else but not us, and we trick our brain by thinking that it is not God's way will be better (which actually could be the case.)

Back To Betting On God

So, how we could make Pascal's wager a better wager? This is my take on it:

We as human always ask everything throughout our life and we often find walls hindering us to ask more, and one of it could be due to the strictness of religious doctrine against doubt. Some of the questions might be unanswerable until our death, and religions might satisfy a bit of our curiosity.

However, this leads to another solution: death. Why don't you just kill yourself? You do not have to spend your life wondering about the answer to those questions, and you may find out directly the answers to this question. This is actually where the wager comes in.

If God does exist and we ask a lot of questions throughout our life, we might know how far we actually know and check which ones are right and which ones are wrong. We have spent our whole life finding out the truth, and it might be paid off in the end. However, if God turns out does not exist, that's it. You used your life to ask and learn, and it is done.

However, what happened if you do not ask questions? If God does exist, your life was meaningless. God has given you some time to learn and be a better person, but you did not take the chance. What happen to you might depend on God's mood, but it does not change the fact that your life was meaningless. If God does not exist, yea that's it. Your life and your death are both meaningless.

What Could We Conclude

I always say that finding your belief, including choosing a religion should be a more intimate experience. It should not be pressured by third parties, including parents and society. I may not be the right person to say this, but belief in whatever fits the best to you. As I have said many times, life on earth is about how we deal with daily problems with everyone else. If your religion could not help you solve that, what's the point?

Life is all about asking questions and finding the truth. We have a limited amount of time to find the answers and make our world a better place for life. Do not waste it. Be nice to each other, love everyone, and keep looking up.

Title image credit: The New Yorker