INTELLECTUAL HONESTY

Religion once offered answers to many questions that have now been ceded to the care of science. Many people have taken inspiration from Blaise Pascal and argue that evidence is beside the point and that religious believers have simply taken the wiser of two bets: if a believer is wrong about God, there is not much harm to him or to anyone else, and if he is right, he wins eternal happiness, if an atheist is wrong, however, he is destined to spend eternity in hell. On this view, atheism is the very picture of reckless stupidity.

While Pascal deserves his reputation as a brilliant mathematician, his gamble was never more than a cute ( and false) analogy. Like many cute ideas in philosophy, it is easily remembered and often repeated. A person can profess any creed he likes, of course, but to really believe it, he must believe that it's true. To believe that there is a God , for instance, is to believe that you are not just fooling yourself, it is to believe that you stand in some relation to God's existence such that, if he didn't exist,you wouldn't believe in him.

Everyone who has eyes to see can see that if the God of Abraham exists, he is an utter psychopath, as the God of nature is too. If you can't see these things just by looking, you have simply closed your eyes to the realities of our world. Your own consciousness is the cause and substance of any experience you might want to deem "spiritual" or "mystical". realising this, what possible need is there to pretend to be certain about ancient miracles, or for wine and virgins in heaven.