Blaise Pascal was born 400 years ago today. He figures in the history of computing as the second person to produce a mechanical calculator (Schickard was the first). He made many mathematical and scientific discoveries, but is also well-known for his philosophical thoughts.
"Pascal's most famous work in philosophy is Pensées Ⓣ, a collection of personal thoughts on human suffering and faith in God which he began in late 1656 and continued to work on during 1657 and 1658. This work contains 'Pascal's wager' which claims to prove that belief in God is rational with the following argument.
If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing."With 'Pascal's wager' he uses probabilistic and mathematical arguments but his main conclusion is that
...we are compelled to gamble...
"
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