Reviews for Pascal's Wager and Pluralism

Reviews For: Pascal's Wager and Pluralism

RuathaWehrling 2007-06-29 ch 1,	abuseYour last essay was good, so I decided to poke at this one, too. In other words, I'm avoiding my work. :) 1.) "The subject of the existence of God is highly debated." -- Tel me now: what good are the words "the subject" doing in this sentence? They're just filling up spare! Also, "yhe subject" isn't debated -- "the existence of God" is. Be concise! 2.) "the mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal" -- He's a cool guy, by the way. One of my favorite old mathematicians. Wait... that was geeky, wasn't it. Doesn't everyone have favorite mathematicians? :) 3.) Good, quick description of Pascal's Wager. 4.) "praying can be a form of self-hypnosis that can result in belief" -- It's also very good for putting you to sleep... even in church, unfortunately... 5.) "Pascal was writing from a Christian framework, his opinion was that the Catholic Christian God was the best god to place one’s wager upon." -- Shame, shame! This is a run-on sentence. See how the first part of the sentence (up to the comma) and the last part can each stand alone? That's how you know that a comma isn't enough to divide them. You COULD use a semicolon instead, but frankly, I find it easier to just insert a period, myself. 6.) You might make your final argument stronger by detailing some of the "startling parallels" between religions that you mention. Nice essay. Reminds me of one I had to write for a high school religion class. In that one, I (playing devil's advocate) shot down the other three "proofs" for God's existence that my teacher had lectured on, but I had to admit Pascal's Wager. And, as you, I still haven't found a better rational argument for God. Anyhow, nicely written, and thanks! --Ruatha
Our Behemoth 2007-02-25 ch 1,	abuseThis is excellently written. But I disagree, mostly with this statement: "However, since we are talking about rationality, not debating the finer points of world wide religious doctrine, my opinion is that the major religions have essentially the same doctrine, and a pluralistic view of religion is the most prudent." I believe that in the MOST general sense, you can gain similarities in the majority of POPULAR religions...But speak to a Protestant Christian fundamentalist, a Catholic, and perhaps a fundamentalist Muslim, and you most likely will not get them all to agree that followers of each other's religions will all be going to 'heaven'. Religions do not even believe in the same kind of afterlife. There are too many glaring differences between the thousands upon thousands of different religious/mystical beliefs on this planet, and simply 'believing in God' will most certainly not satisfy all of them. I think Pascal's Wager is basically a ridiculous way to frighten people into believing in 'God'--a deity that may or may not even exist in the same way you envision it.
OnceADreamer 2007-02-23 ch 1,	abuseWow, your writing is excellent. I wish I could do half as well as you do on your essays.

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