Pascal's Wager
Pascal's "wager" is a fundamental philosophical argument defending belief in God. Through logical analysis based on a punishment-reward premise, Pascal shows that believing in God is preferable to not believing. The argument is called Continue Reading...
Pascal's Gamble
The human condition is one of suffering and redemption. One who does not suffer is not human. Death and the withering away of youth and vitality explicitly demonstrates the entropic nature of existence. This situation is problematic Continue Reading...
Pascal's View Of The Heart
Pascal seemed, on the surface to make one of the most famous reasoned and calculated defenses of Western Christian philosophy when the French thinker made his 'wager' that it was better to suppose that God existed, rather Continue Reading...
"On the fact that the Christian religion is not the only religion. -- So far is this from being a reason for believing that it is not the true one that, on the contrary, it makes us see that it is so. Men must be sincere in all religions; true heath Continue Reading...
The problem, first posed by an Italian monk in the late 1400s, had remained unsolved for nearly two hundred years. The issue in question was to decide how the stakes of a game of chance should be divided if that game were not completed for some reas Continue Reading...
Theology
Pascal's projected apologia for Christian belief, for which the text of the Pensees offers some glimpse, would ultimately have reflected his sincere conversion (of sorts) to the gloomy Jansenist theology which hovers over his works generall Continue Reading...
Pascal & Giussani
The Roman Catholic church is not generally considered doctrinally "broad," and indeed many of its most fascinating theological voices -- ranging from Pelagius in the fifth century to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., in the twe Continue Reading...
Hume's Problem Of Induction
David Hume is known as one of the foremost skeptics and humanists of his time, who exalted in mankind's ability to transform the world through science. Somewhat ironically, then, one of his most far-reaching philosophical Continue Reading...
The Jansenists were condemned by the pope in 1653 and 1713. Characteristic beliefs of the school included "the idea of the total sinfulness of humanity, predestination, and the need for Christians to rely upon a faith in God which cannot be validate Continue Reading...
Nevertheless, personal experience is a powerful method of argument, especially when the credibility of the individual is not called into question. The moral argument in favor of the existence of God is weak because the existence of human morality do Continue Reading...
Scripture Argument
Argument from Scripture: God's existence cannot be proven by the presence of the concept of God within the text of the Holy Scriptures
Does God exist? Some would argue that this is the most fundamental question posed by any relig Continue Reading...
Catholic Church in Spain and the United States
The Catholic Church has been a very significant religious and political institution in the Europe. Its origins can be traced to a thousand years when Christianity was itself in its infancy. It was a sym Continue Reading...
He goes further to support this by comparing an existent God and a non-existent God, and since humans cannot imagine any being greater than God then God is existent which is logically true and understandable. When this argument is compared to that o Continue Reading...
Relationship of Certainty to God From Descartes Compare With Gassedi, Pascal, and Spinoza
The French philosopher Rene Descartes was one of the most transformational figures of his time and his work is now considered one of the pillars of modern West Continue Reading...
God on Trial: Movie Analysis and Review
The Holocaust of World War II spawned many tragedies, one of which was the crisis of faith it precipitated amongst European Jews. The film God on Trial depicts the inhabitants of a concentration camp literally Continue Reading...
Cultural and Climate Effects on Human Evolution
Cultural group selection's contribution to the progression of cooperation among humans is intensely contested. A majority of human behavior impacted by culturally diffused philosophies (including relig Continue Reading...
Faith/Religion
As most religious philosophers would agree, "there can be no conclusive evidence either way" regarding the existence of God (63). Faith is thus an essential compensation for the lack of any conclusive evidence that God exists. For the Continue Reading...