Creationism Vs Evolution
4 Pages 1113 Words
Philosophy, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary (2001), is the “investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods” (p.633). In other words, it is logical thought process instead of experimentation. Philosophy can be broken down into many categories, so I narrowed down to two: theology, and evolution.
Theology, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary (2001), is “the study of the nature of God and religious truth” (p.848). Theologists believe that God created the universe, the stars, the planets, and the people that occupy them. God has created a special place called heaven; where good people go that believe in him. Along with this special place, he created hell. Hell is a place where bad people go, as well as those that do not believe in him.
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who created the Pascal Wager to prove that there was a God. He did not use any experiments to prove the existence of God, but rather, he used his self-interest in God as his guide. He stated that it was a better “bet” (Wikipedia 2004), to believe in God because the outcome would be better than if one did not believe. Pascal felt it was a wise decision to believe in God, if for nothing else, to cover ourselves just in case.
Pascal’s Wager (Holt 2004) states the following:
It is possible that the Christian God exists and it is possible that the Christian God does not exist.
If one believes in the Christian God then, if he exists then one receives an infinitely great reward and if he does not exist then one loses little or nothing.
If one does not believe in the Christian God then if he exists then one receives an infinitely great punishment and if he does not exist then one gains little or nothing.
It is better to either receive an infinitely great reward or lose little or noth...