Pascal's Wager I believe you misunderstood my main point: Pascal's Wager should not be viewed as an Epistemological proof for the existence of God, which you seem to interpret it as. I instead view it as a "burden of proof" argument, upon which there is greater rewards for the theist (yes, I concede, if they choose to worship the "correct god") than the atheist, who, regardless of the verification of any religion, is choosing the losing side when taking the gamble whether or not one chooses to worship any god or gods. This is not a matter of statistics, which, according to your seemingly Evidentialist point of view (I say this because you reference a lack of evidence towards one side or the other, which is a faulty viewpoint in my opinion - though this is for another discussion), does
not warrant a 50/50 split - and yes I maintain the belief that your view is wrong - on the grounds of Richard Price's
Four Dissertations, whereby he utilizes Bayesian statistics to say that even if someone observes the tides coming in 1 million times the assigned 50% probability that the tide mysteriously does not roll in one day is between 1 to 600,000 and 1 to 3 million - which is utterly absurd; so let us please put this issue of statistics beside us; separately, Propositional Logic and Mathematical Theorems are vastly different - this I maintain as well (for reasons not only apparent to a Logician or a mathematician, but to a student of these subjects also). Let us return to the main argument, then: Let us assume there is no God, and one acts religiously, living virtuously and no engaging in revelry - upon death nothing happens to her, as there is no God and no eternal ramifications - likewise under the assumption that there is no God, and one believes as such, she engages in hedonism, pleasure without restrain, and upon death nothing happens. Here the atheist is better off having lived a pleasure-filled life, while the theist lacked in such regards. In the opposite direction, let's assume God exists - if one chooses the correct God and lives piously, they go to heaven - in the obverse, under the assumption that God exists, and the atheist maintains their atheism, upon death they receive eternal damnation. Here the disparity between due rewards is astronomically different than a life lived frivolously or not, given the assertion that there is no God. Even if one chooses the wrong god to worship, their chances of going to heaven upon death are greater than the atheists 0% chance. Here is why Pascal's Wager is an argument for the burden of proof and not an argument for or against God's existence: it is an argument for the reader to consider the ramifications of the presumption and acting out of Theism or Atheism.