Genius. That’s the only word I can think of to describe Blaise Pascal.
If you aren’t familiar with Pascal, let me just give you a quick bullet-point bio:
- Renowned French scientist, inventor, psychologist, philosopher
- Child prodigy –mastered Greek and Latin by twelve
- He invented the first mechanical calculator as a teenager in 1642
- “Pascal theorem” is named after him
Oh, and there’s one more thing you might be familiar with: Pascal’s wager. Does that ring a bell?
I remember learning about Pascal’s wager in my public school history class. It goes something like this (paraphrase):
If you believe in God only to find out He does not exist, you have lost nothing. But if you don’t believe in God and He does exist, you lose everything. Therefore logically it is most beneficial to believe in God.
That idea always bothered me because a relationship with Christ does not depend upon “playing the odds.” It is about placing faith in Christ alone.
I thought Pascal must have totally missed the whole concept of faith –until recently.
I was reading one of Pascal’s works when I came across his wager. Get this, my school textbook didn’t tell the whole story (imagine that)!
It turns out that Pascal did understand faith and he was just using his wager illustration to make an important point. If you read the whole context of his writing (something I thought we were supposed to have learned in school) it becomes clear that he is setting up a case for faith rather than a case for “playing the odds.” His reasoning goes like this:
- A relationship with God is only through faith in Christ.
- If it were based upon “playing the odds,” anyone would be a Christian because it makes sense in the long-run (insert wager illustration).
- However, the fact that everyone is not a Christian means that deep in the heart of every man, there is something that is rebellious toward God.
- Therefore, faith is necessary.
To sum up his point, Pascal states, “All those who have claimed to know God, and to prove Him without Jesus Christ, have had only weak proofs…”
Ouch –that convicts my heart! It’s easy for me to say that “playing the odds” Christianity is shallow and vain. But, honestly, I think I live that way sometimes. When I:
In fact, anytime I live as though total dependence upon Christ is not necessary to my standing with God, I am living as though I am merely “playing the odds.”