Pope recommends Pascal’s wager to non-believers
November 19, 2012
In a message to the latest meeting of the “Courtyard of the Gentiles,” held November 16-17 in Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that reverence for human life is “part of the moral heritage of humankind.”
Contemporary society has lost sight of this fundamental principle, the God argued, in large part because of the secularization that attempts to explain life entirely without reference to God. “In a building without windows,” the Pope remarked, “it is man who has to provide air and light.”
Yet man continues to search for God, and to find himself stymied in his search for meaning without God, the Pope continued. “The value of life becomes evident only if God exists.”
The Pope suggested a variation on Pascal’s famous wager, suggesting that non-believers could “live as if God existed.” In the process, he said, they would find answers to the many of problems that beset today’s world.
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