Pascal's Wager

I know religion isn't for everyone, but religious or not, I think Pascal's Wager is extremely interesting and something worth studying.

I have no trouble admitting that I am a Christian. But don't judge because of that. Yes I believe in God and I believe in heaven and hell. But I am not a die-hard Christian or anything. I just think that Pascal's Wager makes a lot of sense.

The wager goes like this...
In terms of numbers, if God exists, then a person who believes in him is represented by an infinity, because they receive eternal salvation, and someone who doesn't believe in him is a negative infinity, because they are given eternal damnation. If God does not exists, then a person who believes in him is a negative 20 (or some other number) because that person is weighed down with the requirements of believing in God (going to church, praying, etc). Someone who does not believe in him is a 20 because they do not face any of those drawbacks.

Summary-
God is real-
Believer: Infinity
Non-believer: Negative Infinity

God is not real-
Believer: Negative 20
Non-believer: 20

We will never have a way of wholeheartedly proving that God is real. I believe it because I am one of those people who doesn't doubt faith.
Regardless, these numbers show that because we will never know, the best option to choose is to believe in God, because it reaps the greatest rewards. It is simple math and common sense. I don't want to be one of those people who pushes religion on others, because I respect people who choose not to believe in it. But if I were a non-Christian, then from a mathematical/logical/rational standpoint, it would make sense to believe in God simply because it has the potential to produce the best result.

Robert Nozick

Have you ever heard of Robert Nozick? He was a famous philosopher in the later 1900's who is most famous for his idea of the Experience Machine. This idea consists of a machine that would allow a person to have any experience that he or she wants. He proposes and experiment in which people may choose to be inside a tank for two years where they will be hooked up to this machine, and they may pre-choose what experiences to have. Every two years the person will be unplugged in order to choose the next two years of experiences. 

Despite the chance of getting to experience any possible thing, so many people say they would not choose to plug into the machine. Why? The first reason often given is because no one would actually be having the experiences, only psychologically believing that they were. Another common reason is because there is no way to undergo any type of character develop when receiving experiences from a machine. Third, because there is no interaction with other people, only the conversations that occur inside the mind. 

I guess I will be the first person to make an honest claim. I would plug-in. Sure, everyone thinks they are being noble by saying they would rather live a full life. Bullshit. You all know that if you had the opportunity to take out all the pain and defeat in your life, and replace it will excitement and happiness, that you would do so in a heartbeat. If I got to live a year of lying on beaches, drinking fruit smoothies, skydiving, riding roller coasters, making best friends, and falling in love...then hell yeah I would do so. Even if it wasn't my body doing these things, I would never know the difference. I would have the same experience regardless.

The only downside? No shower for two years. I guess that's the price you pay. 

Economics of Happiness

Did you know that there is an equation for happiness? It is as follows:

H=R/E

Happiness equals reality divided by expectation. Makes sense right? Happiness will be a positive number so long as your expectations are not too high. But what does this suggest? That if we want to have a happy life then we need to have consistently low expectations?

You may think, "well what about not having any expectations?" This of course is impossible. Mathematically, E is always a real number because you cannot divide by zero. Realistically, no one has zero expectations. Despite the fact that we may say we do, we always secretly have some expectation in the back of our mind.

So what about the flip side of the equation? If you divide reality with expectation, you get a happiness quotient. What about when you invert this?

H=E/R

Expectation over Reality equals not happiness, but hope. Assuming reality is a constant, expectation has to be greater than reality to create optimism. In other words, when we expectations higher than reality, this is called having hope. This I believe goes along with my belief in blind faith. We shouldn't be afraid to dream simply because reality tells us that such things are impossible.


So how do you stand? Low standards for happiness? Or high standards for hope?

Production of Happiness

I want a career in which my job is simply to make people happy. I know that this seems kind of far-fetched. I mean, how can one have a job that produces only positive results? Sure, they say become a teacher or a social worker, but I just can't see myself reaching out far enough.

If I could do anything that I wanted, no restrictions, I would like to host a TV show similar to Extreme Makeover. Except this show would involve participating in a different program every week to help some particular interest group. Say one week I would get together a group of people to read books to children with learning disabilities, another week I would teach poor, single mothers how to cook cheap but healthy meals for their children, and another week I would aid in building a new school in a poor neighborhood. I could call it the Service Project.

So you think hmm, why not just start a charity? It's not enough! I want to be able to help people in all areas of poverty: ailing school, sick patients, children with disabilities. But it's not just that. I want to make everyone happy. Even those who may not necessarily need the help. The problem is that there is just no awareness of these things. That's why I don't just want a charity, I want a show. I think that advertising these issues is the only way to get more support.

Thoughts?