Pascal's Wager

Here are the thoughts of the French soul...

"If I saw no signs of a divinity, I would fix myself in denial. If I saw everywhere the marks of a Creator,

I would repose peacefully in faith. But seeing too much to deny Him, and too little to assure me,

I am in a pitiful state, and I would wish a hundred times that if a God sustains nature

it would reveal Him without ambiguity.

We understand nothing of the works of God unless we take it as a principle
that He wishes to blind some and to enlighten others.

Endeavour then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions. You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief, and ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process this will make you believe, and will dull you—will quiet your proudly critical intellect...

Now, what harm will befall you in taking this side? You will be faithful, honest, humble, grateful, generous, a sincere friend, truthful. Certainly you will not have those poisonous pleasures, glory and luxury; but will you not have others? I will tell you that you will thereby gain in this life, and that, at each step you take on this road, you will see so great certainty of gain, so much nothingness in what you risk, that you will at last recognize that you have wagered for something certain and infinite, for which you have given nothing."