Betting on God is the only wager where losing costs you nothing

Blaise Pascal argued that since reason can't settle whether God exists, treat belief as a bet: wager on God's existence and you risk very little if you're wrong, but gain everything if you're right; wager against and the reverse applies. He concluded that believing is the only rational choice, whatever the actual odds — turning faith into a decision-theory problem rather than a matter of evidence.

— Blaise Pascal, Pensées — Section III, fragment 233 — published posthumously, 1670
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