Was pascal sympathetic towards agnostics when talking about who will go to heaven?

Answer 1

Pascal was sympathetic toward agnostics in that he did not immediately condemn them for doubt. Instead, Pascal tried to bring agnostics into the fold with a famous argument commonly called "Pascal's Wager."

According to the argument he proposed, it is impossible to prove that God does or doesn't exist, but a person has nothing to lose in worshiping God; in fact, it is safer. Why? If you believe in God and there turns out not to be a God when you die, then you just die and you have lost nothing. On the other hand, if you don'tbelieve in God and it turns out that God does exist when you die, then you will go to Hell.

Many atheists and agnostics (myself included) believe that Pascal's Wager falls short on two counts: a) If you believe "just to be safe," that you don't really believe in the first place and that any all-powerful, all-knowing god would see through that ruse; and b) to choose a belief system in order to avoid a fate that has no proof of existing is a foolish and fearful way to live one's life.