Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Atheist Dawkins Concedes



We truly never understood the meaning of  "it's an ill wind indeed that blows no good" until we learned this morning that supreme foe of gods in general, and Christ in particular Richard Dawkins  had cried "Calf-Rope".

He was quoted by an interviewer as saying that only Christianity can now save the world from the darkest excesses of a blindly hating and death worshipping savagery that threatens every continent.

You can read the details  HERE !

But taken as an event, the Dawkins adoption of Christianity as a "Savior" of civilization would warm the heart of the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, whose "Wager" is mostly familiar to those who spend some time discussing the efficacy--- or even the possibility--- of buttressing a belief in the Deity.

Blaise Pascal lived to be less than 50 but in the 17th century he challenged all his contemporaries with mathematical discoveries and the well articulated and brilliantly faceted logic of his "Pensees" (Thoughts). 

Pascal's Wager is probably his most famous contribution to apologetic philosophy. 

He simply said that we have a choice, similar to tossing a coin in a "heads / tails" game.

If we choose not to believe, we have nothing to look forward to except the meager assembly of short-lived earthly trinkets and 
questionable reputations, limited and finite.

But if we choose to believe, to use faith to measure the Infinite and follow the commandments of a faith, then even if that faith turns out to be without reason, all we have lost is evil while we gained the ultimate structured beneficent life. Even Donald J Trump would call that an Artful Deal.

We have watched a lot of people come  and go since 1925.  And despite all the haughty  smears and snears of the  elusive nonbelievers, we have yet to see anything more delightful to watch than an agnostic or atheist reduced to shuffling soles  and sudden uncertainty as they grasp for the Wager of Blaise Pascal.

Let us all welcome frere Darkins to his new comfort. May many follow him.