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How did Blaise Pascal use the idea of a wager to defend belief in God?

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Charles Sprague Pearce: Religion — Philosophy of religion Detail of *Religion*, mural in lunette from the Family and Education series by Charles Sprague Pearce, 1897; in the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

In the philosophy of religion, Pascal’s wager is a practical argument formulated by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in his work Pensées. Applying elements of game theory, Pascal argued that because human reason cannot definitively prove or disprove the existence of God, individuals must choose whether to live as if God exists.12

Pascal framed this choice as a wager with significant stakes:
* If you believe and God exists: You gain infinite happiness.1
* If you do not believe and God exists: You face infinite suffering.1
* If you believe and God does not exist: You lose only the finite pleasures of a life unconstrained by Christian morality.1
* If you do not believe and God does not exist: You gain only finite pleasure.1

Pascal concluded that since the potential gain of belief is infinite and the potential loss is finite, the only rational choice is to wager that God exists. This argument serves as a motive for self-persuasion rather than an attempt to provide empirical evidence for truth.12