PASCAL'S WAGER OR PASCAL'S BLACKMAIL?

Look at Pascal's Wager. Pascal argued that we must believe in God and his Church for there is no harm done if they are the truth and we will be in trouble and exposed as harmful people if we refuse to believe or don't believe.  It gets worse.  The eternal punishment of Hell is what he is thinking of as part of that trouble.  Those who fail to love God supposedly go there forever.

It speaks to the individual.  But also to groupings.  People are going to end up blackmailed by their religious organisation.
 
You are forbidden to argue like Pascal did, "I will follow God's Church in case it is true. If it is false I will be virtuous because I obeyed. If it is true and I don't obey, then I will go to Hell forever. So it is safer to follow the Church." That totally contradicts the insistence of Jesus and his mad apostles that you put ifs and buts out of your head. For you, the Church and Jesus are the truth. Period. This shows how the faith is about control over minds and lives.
 
The Catholic and Christian religion uses Pascal's argument to get followers for it ditches honesty and consistency when it wants to get new victims. But what is it but mere fire insurance against Hell? It thrives on religious fear. It boosts that fear.
 
The Bible says that perfect love of God casts out all fear. This teaching is attractive in the light of Bertrand Russell's assertion that fear is the parent of cruelty.
 
But love implies fearing that the object of your love may not be respected by you and others. Love and fear go together. Love requires that you fear failing to love properly.
 
The believer in God must partly fear that God may not exist and so the love given to God is wasted. You cannot say, "But it is good for people to love even if what they love is false." That makes no sense. Nobody encourages you to love what you think a person is rather than what the person really is. It is a contradiction to say that it is good for a person to love something no matter what it is even if it is bad or doesn't exist. If God does not exist, you cannot encourage a person to love him more than their child. They should love the child more. The person cheats themselves and their child.
 
And even if you have no fear of God, he gives you plenty of other things to worry about. The Bible says that not all will be saved and go to Heaven. Some will spend eternity in the torment of Hell. It is better to be afraid of God than to have to worry about something so hideous.
 
The Bible teaching about perfect love casting out fear is simply a lie. You will only end up fearing you are doing something wrong when you realise that despite your love of God you are still suffering from fear. The teaching is not helpful at all.
 
If you think Hell is entirely your own creation and God is passive in all that, then you will fear yourself.
 
If you admit that the Bible says God is not passive but ruins your body and soul in Gehenna or Hell as Jesus said in Matthew 5:22 then you will have as much fear as ever. The notion of God being passive in relation to Hell contradicts the Catholic doctrine that God raises the bodies of those who will suffer in Hell so that they will suffer body and soul. Then you will still fear yourself for it is because of your rejection of God that he sends you to Hell.
 
Religious fear is the fear that leads Catholic to fear the Protestant and Mormon and Muslim to name a few.
 
It is the fear that makes Catholic families disinherit and cast off sons or daughters who leave the Church.
 
It is the fear that makes Catholics vent hatred towards priests who forsake their "vocation" and get married.
 
It is the fear that is used to bully and frighten and put pressure on women to avoid getting pregnant out of marriage.
 
It is the fear of giving a "bad example that draws to sin and Hell" that leads parents to rip the babies from the arms of their unwed daughters and have the babies sent off to adoptive parents to keep the "scandalous" knowledge of the births from the neighbours and the rest of the family.
 
It is the fear that leads a Catholic father to beat up his son or daughter for doubting the religion or failing to go to Mass or getting drunk or whatever - all of which Rome considers to be serious sins that deserve everlasting torment.
 
All Pascal's argument produces is hardship and hypocrisy because it has people living in fear and only doing good and obeying to avoid Hell. The good person does good for it is good. Doing it to avoid Hell means you are not doing good for it is good but to avoid torment. It is begrudged good. Yet the Church approves of this good for it says God will forgive you in confession through the priest even if you are only repentant of sin for the sake of avoiding Hell!
 
Unmarried mothers and gay people, to take two examples, who support the Church by being classed a member, by going to Mass or by giving financial support to the Church are betraying themselves and other unmarried mothers and other gay people. One day the Church could have the power to make unmarried motherhood and being gay the horrific shame it was able to make it in the past. And indeed in many parts of the world it has that power. Morality changes with the fashions. As long as the Church condemns something, it could get into a position in the future where it can persecute and suppress those who flout its condemnation.
 
What a fine preparation for death Christianity is! When you feel death coming upon you, you are naturally going to accept the Wager as correct and applicable. It will be irresistible. After all who wants to go to the everlasting imprisonment of Hell especially when it could be only a few minutes away. But rejecting sin to avoid punishment is in reality not rejecting the sin at all but the punishment. It means that because of your Christian faith, you go out of this world hating punishment and wishing you could sin all you want without the fear of it hanging over you. It's a no-win situation. You are damned if you do repent and damned if you don't. And yet the Church says that you will be damned unless your preference is for God rather than sin. What is it doing? Trying to put people in Hell?
 
The Church teaches that we should believe in it and its message for it means we will be virtuous and will have that advantage even if the faith it teaches is untrue. That is really insinuating that outsiders and naturalists and humanists and atheists are evil people or promoting evil. They are working against virtue and should not be allowed to do that. They should especially be kept away from children in case they become a bad influence.
 
Fear percolates though the mind and body of the person.  It easily spreads to the next person.  Fear shows us how dangerous Christianity is.
 
BOOKS CONSULTED

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