I had this exact same conversation with some Mormons just a couple of weeks back.
I think I also said “Pascal is my bookie.” I thought I was being clever-clever, but I think it went right over their heads.
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you know I was in the subway once and saw a moron with a name tag that said "Elder Lee" Not a bad pun it actually happend!!!
Meryle
Are you referring to your being tight with the G-man in terms of Pascal's wager? ...or are you referring to the "modified-P-wager" defense (MPWD) against Mormons?
The MPWD against Mormons is that since the *worst* thing that will happen to you if they're right and you reject it is an earthly paradise... but the worst thing that will happen to you if you're right and you reject it is eternal lake of fire... it's a better bet to reject Mormonism and go with what you got.
(that is, if what you got is good ole' fire&brimstone bible religion).
--Gregory @ honest2blog
Word up, gangsta!
-- Gideon Strauss
I'm referring to my being tight with the G-man in terms of Pascal's wager. I'm not familiar with this "Modified Pascal's Wager Defense" of which you speak, but it sounds like something I'll have to look up.
I'm not a "Fire and Brimstone" kind of guy. I think a lot of that had to do with Father Dave Whelan, who was the school chaplain at De La Salle College here in Toronto, where I (and Keanu Reeves, for one year) went to high school. He suggested that the doorway to Heaven would be wide open with giant signs saying "c'mon in!". Some people just wouldn't be able to see it.
Please indulge my geekiness for a moment here, but such a scenario reminds me of what happened on the episode of Babylon 5 where Kosh has to leave his encounter suit -- essentially a disguise -- to save Captain Sheridan. Everyone perceives him as an angel or holy servant of God in his or her own religion except for the partnered-with-the-Shadows Londo Mollari, who can't see him at all.
The MPWD is something my friends and I came up with while in discussion with some Mormons. But then I heard that the same thing had occurred to others, independently. I thought maybe you were thinking of it too.
Anyway, what about those who don't see the giant sign to Heaven? What happens to them? No judgment or condemnation?
--Gregory @ honest2blog
My guess -- and please remember this is "cocktail party theology" -- is that the wandering around trying to find the Big Doorway and not being able to see it is Hell. Kind of like an eternal wait at the Department of Motor Vehicles/Ministry of Transport.
I kind of like the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle vision of Hell in their book Inferno, where it is possible to get out, but most people in Hell don't have a clue how.
The Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle vision of Hell sounds a lot like what C.S. Lewis (Mr. Narnia) apparently thought about hell, judging by his The Great Divorce.
Hey, that would be a great book title: "Cocktail Party Theology."
-- Gideon Strauss, who also posted the most recent anonymous posting. And who isn't getting any linkbacks from THIS comment system ....
I'm all about cocktail-party-theology!
more ruminations...
It seems to me that while we all will be held accountable for *not* seeing the Big Doorway, that actually *seeing* it requires a "monergisticaly" (25cent word) effectual gift of vision by the G-man Himself. No one is, of themselves, capable of seeing the Way. We are, by nature, "children of wrath" (as the Good Book says). --Gregory @ honest2blog