Tag: Belief vs. Evidence

Debunking Pascal’s Wager: Why Betting on God Fails

👋 Welcome Back to The God Question
We’ve just completed our 20-Day Easter Special—a deep dive into Christianity’s central claim: the resurrection of Jesus. If you joined us for that journey, thank you for thinking critically with us. If you missed it, the full series is available in our archives.

Today, we return to our regular rotation of posts, cycling through our 11 core categories—starting with a timeless favorite: debunking Pascal’s Wager.

Let’s keep asking.

🎲 What Is Pascal’s Wager?

Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century French mathematician and Christian apologist, proposed a now-famous argument:

If God exists and you believe, you gain eternal life.
If God doesn’t exist and you believe, you lose nothing.
If God exists and you don’t believe, you lose everything.
Therefore, the rational choice is to believe—just in case.

It’s not a proof of God. It’s a wager—a pragmatic bet on belief as a risk-averse strategy.

The simplicity is seductive. But under scrutiny, Pascal’s Wager collapses.

Let’s examine it using The God Question’s Core Philosophy:

  1. Does the claim rely on evidence or belief?
  2. Are alternative explanations considered?
  3. Is there independent corroboration?
  4. Is the claim falsifiable?
  5. Does the explanation raise more questions than it answers?

1. 🔍 Belief Without Evidence

Pascal’s Wager doesn’t argue that God exists. It argues that belief is the safest gamble.

But rational belief requires evidence, not mere risk assessment. Would you bet your life on a vague threat of hell from any other religion?

Belief without evidence isn’t noble—it’s surrender.

And belief, by its nature, can’t be faked. If you don’t believe in your bones, God (if he exists) would know you’re bluffing.

2. 🔁 False Dichotomy

Pascal presents a binary choice: Christianity or atheism. But that’s intellectually dishonest.

What about Islam? Hinduism? Norse gods? Deism? Reincarnation?

There are thousands of possible gods, each with different rules, punishments, and promises. Betting on one might mean offending another.

The Wager doesn’t guide you toward truth. It traps you in fear.

3. 🔗 No Corroboration of Consequences

The Wager only works if the consequences it threatens—eternal reward or punishment—are real.

But:

  • There’s no evidence for heaven or hell.
  • There’s no documented survival of consciousness after death.
  • All afterlife accounts come from within religious traditions—not external, testable sources.

You can’t wager on stakes that aren’t demonstrably real.

4. ❌ Not Falsifiable

How would we know if Pascal’s Wager is wrong? We wouldn’t—because it’s not a testable claim. It doesn’t predict anything. It doesn’t risk being disproven.

Worse, it discourages doubt, inquiry, and courage by appealing to fear.

A wager that can’t be lost isn’t a rational argument. It’s a psychological manipulation.

5. ❓Raises More Questions Than It Answers

Pascal’s Wager doesn’t settle anything. It opens a floodgate:

  • Why would a just god reward fear-based belief?
  • Is belief really a choice? Can you will yourself to believe something you find implausible?
  • What kind of god values belief over evidence and compliance over honesty?

If eternal life depends on pretending to believe something you don’t, we’ve traded morality for fire insurance.

💡 Final Thought: Truth Over Terror

Pascal’s Wager thrives in uncertainty. But the honest seeker doesn’t wager—they investigate.

If there’s a god worth believing in, that god would reward truthfulness, not hedging.

Belief should follow evidence—not fear. And if a god punishes doubt more than dishonesty, that god isn’t worthy of worship.

🧭 The God Question’s Invitation

Pascal told us to bet.

We say: ask. test. follow the truth.

That’s how belief becomes meaningful—or how it gets left behind.

Let’s keep asking.

Why the Resurrection Never Happened — And Why That Matters

📅 Today is Day 20 of The 20-Day Easter Special

🚨 Let’s Say It Plainly

After twenty days of scrutiny—comparing claims, dissecting texts, exploring psychology, history, theology, and myth—we’re ready to say what many suspect, and some already know:

The resurrection of Jesus never happened.

Not in the literal, physical, historical sense claimed by most Christians.

Not as an actual dead man walking out of a tomb in Roman-occupied Judea.

And not in any way that should command our moral allegiance, public policy, or existential loyalty.

Let’s break down why.

🧭 Reapplying The God Question’s Core Philosophy

  1. Does the resurrection claim rely on evidence or belief?
  2. Are alternative explanations considered?
  3. Is there independent corroboration?
  4. Is the claim falsifiable?
  5. Does the explanation raise more questions than it answers?

After applying these questions to every aspect of the Easter story, here’s what we found:

1. 🔍 It Relies on Belief, Not Evidence

There is no verifiable evidence that Jesus came back from the dead. All claims stem from internal Christian writings—none contemporary, none neutral, and none coherent.

  • No tomb confirmed.
  • No body found.
  • No names on eyewitness accounts.
  • No Roman records.
  • No Jewish documentation.

Belief fills the gaps—and then dares us to call that “faith.”

2. 🔁 Alternative Explanations Fit Better

Everything in the resurrection narrative has naturalistic explanations that are far more plausible:

  • Apparitions and visions? Common after traumatic death.
  • Empty tomb? A later legend.
  • Devotion despite death? So did followers of Osiris, Mithras, and countless others.

Christianity is not unique. It is a cultural remix of dying-and-rising myths, made palatable to Greco-Roman ears.

3. 🔗 No Independent Corroboration Exists

No outside historian mentions the resurrection until long after the supposed event. Even early Christian writings—Paul’s letters—say almost nothing about an empty tomb or physical sightings.

If a dead man truly rose and appeared to hundreds, it’s strange no one beyond the movement cared enough to mention it.

4. ❌ The Claim Is Unfalsifiable

The beauty of the resurrection myth (for the believer) is that it’s immune to failure:

  • Don’t find evidence? “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.”
  • Find contradictions? “Each account adds richness.”
  • Don’t feel God? “You must be hardened by sin.”

Nothing can prove it false—so nothing can prove it true.

5. ❓ It Creates More Confusion Than Clarity

A god-man must die to appease himself so he can forgive us for what he created us to be?

That’s not just illogical—it’s morally incoherent.

And it asks us to worship the system that created the pain.

The resurrection myth encourages passivity in the face of injustice (“Jesus will fix it in the next life”) and emotional manipulation (“He died for you—what will you do for him?”).

It demands surrender, not inquiry. Loyalty, not logic.

✊ Why It Matters

Some will say: “Even if it’s not true, the resurrection inspires hope.”

But false hope is not harmless:

  • It’s used to justify suffering (“your pain has purpose”).
  • It’s used to cover corruption (“don’t worry, God will judge in the end”).
  • It’s used to escape reality (“this life doesn’t matter as much as the next one”).

If the resurrection never happened, then we—humans—are responsible for building meaning, fixing injustice, and finding hope in one another.

And that’s not bad news.

That’s the beginning of honest, grounded, collective morality.

🧭 The God Question’s Final Invitation

The resurrection myth is beautiful, ancient, poetic—and false.

But that doesn’t leave us empty. It frees us.

It frees us to grieve without platitudes. It frees us to ask without shame. It frees us to love without fear. It frees us to build a better world—not because God will fix it, but because no one else will.

And that’s why truth matters.

Let’s keep asking. Let’s keep building.

📺 For Further Exploration

Video: The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of The Easter Story – Jonathan MS Pearce (Part 1)

Overview: In this in-depth discussion, philosopher and author Jonathan MS Pearce delves into his book The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story. He systematically analyzes the resurrection narratives, highlighting inconsistencies and exploring naturalistic explanations.

📅 Note: After we wrap up our 20-Day Easter Special on April 20, we’ll return to our regular schedule of posting three times a week:

  • Tuesdays & Fridays – our structured explorations through all 11 blog categories
  • Sundays – our Sunday Special Feature, where we critically respond to real-world religious claims in real time

We hope you’ll stay with us as we continue asking bold questions and applying reason to faith.

How to Think Critically About the Resurrection

📅 Today is Day 19 of The 20-Day Easter Special

Each day leading up to Easter, we’re critically examining a core resurrection claim—one at a time—through the lens of reason, evidence, and The God Question’s Core Philosophy.

🧩 The Central Question

Christians often declare: “The resurrection is the best explanation for the evidence!” But what happens when we actually apply critical thinking?

Today, we’re not asking what to believe—we’re asking how to think. Specifically, how to evaluate the resurrection claim with the same logic we’d apply to anything else.

🧭 Apply The God Question’s Core Philosophy

  1. Does the claim rely on evidence or belief?
  2. Are alternative explanations considered?
  3. Is there independent corroboration?
  4. Is the claim falsifiable?
  5. Does the explanation raise more questions than it answers?

Let’s examine how the resurrection fares under these five filters of reason.

1. 🔍 Does the Claim Rely on Evidence or Belief?

The resurrection is based entirely on ancient, anonymous texts. We have no eyewitness testimony—not in the modern sense. The Gospels were written decades later, by unknown authors, in communities already devoted to Jesus.

In most areas of life, we demand strong, first-hand evidence. Imagine trying to prove a dead man came back to life using only third-hand blog posts written 40 years later by his followers.

Yet in religion, belief is often treated as its own evidence.

Critical Thinking Tip: Belief may motivate—but it doesn’t validate.

2. 🔁 Are Alternative Explanations Considered?

A critical thinker doesn’t jump to conclusions—they ask:

  • Could the tomb story be a legend?
  • Could the appearances be dreams, visions, or grief-induced hallucinations?
  • Could the resurrection motif have grown over time to elevate Jesus’ status?

Christian apologists rarely explore these possibilities in good faith. Instead, they leap from “the tomb was empty” (which isn’t even verifiable) to “therefore, God raised Jesus.”

That’s a non sequitur—a conclusion that doesn’t follow from the premise.

Critical Thinking Tip: Consider all the possibilities. Then weigh them, not by what you want to be true, but by what best fits the evidence.

3. 🔗 Is There Independent Corroboration?

Critical thinking requires corroboration from multiple, independent sources.

For the resurrection, we have:

  • No physical evidence
  • No external confirmation from Roman records or first-century historians
  • No contemporary mentions of a public execution followed by a mass resurrection event

All “supporting sources” are internal: the New Testament writers themselves. And they don’t even agree on the details.

Critical Thinking Tip: When all the “evidence” comes from insiders, ask what outsiders had to say—and why they didn’t say it.

4. ❌ Is the Claim Falsifiable?

Can the resurrection be proven false?

  • If the tomb is empty: “He is risen!”
  • If the tomb is occupied: “You’ve got the wrong tomb.”
  • If people report visions: “Proof of resurrection!”
  • If no one reports visions: “They were afraid to speak!”

A belief that explains every outcome explains nothing.

Critical Thinking Tip: If a claim can’t be tested or disproven—even in theory—it doesn’t belong in the realm of knowledge. It belongs in the realm of imagination.

5. ❓ Does the Explanation Raise More Questions Than It Answers?

Saying “God raised Jesus” immediately invites deeper problems:

  • Why wait three days?
  • Why appear only to a select few?
  • Why allow confusion, contradictions, and decades of oral storytelling before documentation?
  • Why choose a time and place (1st-century Palestine) where no one could verify any of this?

These aren’t minor narrative quirks. They are logical red flags.

Critical Thinking Tip: A good explanation simplifies. A poor one multiplies mystery.

🧠 Final Thought: Start with the Method, Not the Conclusion

Critical thinking isn’t about debunking. It’s about pausing. Asking. Testing. Refusing to confuse desire for truth with truth itself.

The resurrection might be comforting. It might be inspiring. But that doesn’t make it true.

Only one thing earns that label: evidence, examined with rigor.

🧭 The God Question’s Invitation

The resurrection is Christianity’s central claim. But no belief—however sacred—is above scrutiny.

If a belief is true, it can withstand your questions. If it isn’t, it shouldn’t survive your trust.

Let’s keep asking.

📺 For Further Exploration

Video: Secrets of the Psychics – NOVA Documentary

Overview: This classic NOVA documentary features renowned skeptic James Randi as he investigates claims of paranormal abilities and miracles. Through demonstrations and critical analysis, Randi exposes the techniques used by self-proclaimed psychics and faith healers, emphasizing the importance of skepticism and scientific inquiry.​

📅 Note: After we wrap up our 20-Day Easter Special on April 20, we’ll return to our regular schedule of posting three times a week:

  • Tuesdays & Fridays – our structured explorations through all 11 blog categories
  • Sundays – our Sunday Special Feature, where we critically respond to real-world religious claims in real time

We hope you’ll stay with us as we continue asking bold questions and applying reason to faith.

Did Christianity Copy Pagan Resurrection Myths?

📅 Today is Day 18 of The 20-Day Easter Special

Each day leading up to Easter, we’re critically examining a core resurrection claim—one at a time—through the lens of reason, evidence, and The God Question’s Core Philosophy.

🧩 The Claim We’re Examining

Critics have long argued that Christianity borrowed its resurrection narrative from earlier pagan religions—claiming that gods like Osiris, Mithras, Adonis, Dionysus, and others were said to have died and returned to life.

If Jesus isn’t the first resurrected god… what does that mean for Christianity’s foundational claim?

To explore this, let’s apply The God Question’s Core Philosophy:

  1. Does the claim rely on evidence or belief?
  2. Are alternative explanations considered?
  3. Is there independent corroboration?
  4. Is the claim falsifiable?
  5. Does the explanation raise more questions than it answers?

1. 🔍 Evidence or Belief?

Christian apologists often assert that the resurrection of Jesus is unique, unprecedented, and historically verified. But this stance requires ignoring or minimizing the abundant mythic material from earlier cultures:

  • Osiris (Egypt): Killed and dismembered, later reassembled and revived by Isis.
  • Dionysus (Greece): Torn apart and reborn.
  • Mithras (Persia/Rome): Celebrated with communal meals and promises of eternal life.
  • Tammuz (Mesopotamia): Descended into the underworld, mourned and revived cyclically.

These aren’t obscure parallels—they were widespread and well-known throughout the ancient Mediterranean world before and during the rise of early Christianity.

✳️ Christianity is not the first religion to claim that a divine figure died and returned.

Verdict: The apologist’s claim relies on belief, not critical engagement with the comparative historical record.

2. 🔁 Are Alternatives Considered?

Christianity’s defenders often frame pagan parallels as coincidental or “Satanic counterfeits.” But they rarely engage with the most reasonable alternative:

That resurrection myths were symbolic, archetypal, and fertility-linked motifs shared across ancient cultures—and that early Christian theology absorbed and adapted these themes.

This explanation is not only plausible, it’s predictable. Syncretism—blending religious ideas—is what religions do when they move across cultures and compete for followers.

Verdict: Mainstream apologetics do not seriously consider syncretism as an explanation. The God Question does.

3. 🔗 Is There Independent Corroboration?

There is no independent historical corroboration of Jesus’ resurrection outside Christian writings. The Gospels themselves disagree on the details of who visited the tomb, when, and what happened there.

Meanwhile, evidence of ancient resurrection cults is abundant and well-documented through texts, rituals, and archaeological artifacts. These include:

  • Initiation rites into mystery religions (like those of Mithras and Eleusis)
  • Artistic depictions of deities returning from the underworld
  • Written prayers and poems about divine resurrections

Verdict: Pagan parallels are corroborated by multiple sources. The Christian resurrection is not.

4. ❌ Is the Claim Falsifiable?

Christian belief in Jesus’ resurrection is not falsifiable:

  • Empty tomb? Could be legend.
  • Witness reports? Decades-later hearsay.
  • Spiritual experiences? Common across religious traditions.

If you remove the supernatural assumption, the claim becomes indistinguishable from other mythical resurrection narratives—which Christians dismiss without evidence.

By contrast, the mythic parallel hypothesis is falsifiable: it can be supported or refuted by comparing texts, rituals, and historical timelines.

Verdict: The traditional resurrection claim fails falsifiability. The syncretism hypothesis survives it.

5. ❓ Does It Raise More Questions Than It Answers?

Trying to isolate Jesus’ resurrection from all other myths raises more problems than it solves:

  • Why would God stage His single, universal act of salvation in a cultural and religious context already full of dying-and-rising gods?
  • Why is the resurrection language in Paul’s letters (1 Corinthians 15, for example) so vague and symbolic—far more in line with mystery cults than forensic biography?
  • Why did belief in resurrection lead to ritual practices (e.g., baptism, communion, reenactments) just like in the surrounding pagan world?

Verdict: The syncretic explanation explains the pattern. The supernatural one just doubles down on mystery.

🧠 Final Thought: Not So Original After All

If Christianity had arisen in a cultural vacuum, the resurrection claim might feel more extraordinary. But it emerged in a world where gods died and rose all the time—symbolizing seasonal renewal, harvest cycles, and cosmic hope.

Christianity didn’t invent resurrection. It inherited it, reinterpreted it, and proclaimed it as fact.

But repeating a myth louder doesn’t make it true.

🧭 The God Question’s Invitation

We’re not here to mock tradition—but to ask the questions tradition was too afraid to answer.

Was the resurrection history? Or was it myth, retold with new urgency?

Let’s keep asking.

📺 For Further Exploration

Video: How Christianity Copied Pagan Myths

📅 Note: After we wrap up our 20-Day Easter Special on April 20, we’ll return to our regular schedule of posting three times a week:

  • Tuesdays & Fridays – our structured explorations through all 11 blog categories
  • Sundays – our Sunday Special Feature, where we critically respond to real-world religious claims in real time

We hope you’ll stay with us as we continue asking bold questions and applying reason to faith.