Clifford thinks Pascal and James are wrong - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages This needs explanations: if we believe in God and God exists, we remain innocent; if we believe in God and God does not exists, we still remain innocent; if we do not believe in God and God does not exist, we can’t be sure that we remain innocent as we can’t know for sure if God exists; if we do not believe in God and God exists, we are guilty. Thus, it is better to believe in God, than not to believe and therefore, according to Blaise Pascal, everybody should believe in God.
The William James has a similar point of view. He also states that we should believe in God and waiting for evidence is not right for humans. Waiting for any evidence to decide if to believe or not may lead us to much losses. According to the philosopher, if a man hesitates to propose to a woman waiting for evidence that she is his ideal, he risks to lose her as she may accept the proposition of someone else. The same is with religion and belief. James states that those people who believe may enjoy the life of religious people and those who do not may lose this chance.
Blaize Pascal and William James are sure that people should believe in God. William Clifford can’t agree with them. It does not mean that this philosopher states that we should not believe in God, but he call us to involve some doubt and states that it is necessary as it is our duty. He provides an example to explain why: a ship-owner had an old ship. He knew that it was old and he also knew that some people were going to have a voyage on its board. He did not have any time or facilities to repair his ship and he preferred to pin his hopes on Providence that would not have allowed people to die. As a result these people died as the ship was broken. This testifies that blind belief in Providence may lead to disaster. “If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any ...Download file to see next pagesRead More