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Betting on God: why considerations of simplicity won't help

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1999

BRADLEY ARMOUR-GARB
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Graduate Centre, City University of New York and Brooklyn College, New York, NY 11210

Abstract

In his famous Wager, Blaise Pascal attempted to adduce prudential grounds on which to base a belief in God. His argument founders, however, on the notorious ‘Many Gods Problem’ the problem of selecting among the many equi-probable gods on offer. Lycan and Schlesinger try to treat the Many Gods Problem as a problem of empirical over-determination, attempting to overcome it using methodologies familiar from empirical science. I argue that their strategy fails, but that the Many Gods Problem can be solved (or dissolved) nevertheless. The solution I offer both avoids the problem faced by Lycan and Schlesinger, and does so while respecting the original Pascalian intuitions to a greater extent than any solutions thus far proffered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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