Pascal's Wager: An Assessment Multiple-Choice Quiz

. Zagzebski's primary goal in this chapter is to

suggest some responses to three well-known objections to Pascal's wager.

convince you that Pascal's wager gives you a good reason to believe in God.

convince you that Pascal's wager does not give you a good reason to believe in God.

criticize the common responses to objections to Pascal's wager.

. For which of the following people, according to Zagzebski, would Pascal's wager be most likely to provide a good reason to accept some form of Christianity?

an agnostic teenager in a large American city with friends of many different religions

the pope

a devout Muslim in Saudi Arabia, where conversion from Islam is illegal

an agnostic teenager in a small Midwestern town where everyone is a Christian

. Which of the following best captures the second objection to Pascal's wager?

Believing in God because of Pascal's wager will not earn the eternal reward that Pascal is after, because it is a form of gambling, and God disapproves of gambling.

Believing in God because of Pascal's wager will not earn the eternal reward that Pascal is after, because God will not reward religious faith that is motivated in that way.

Any religious faith that you develop simply because you've accepted Pascal's wager will be too shallow to constitute genuine faith.

Since God knows everything, it is impossible to fool God into thinking that you really have religious faith when you're just doing it for the eternal reward.

. Which of the following best captures the third objection to Pascal's wager?

Pascal's wager is pointless because it tells you to decide to believe something, but it's impossible to believe something just because you decide you should believe it.

Asking people to believe in God because there's a chance that they will be rewarded with eternal life is like asking people to love jazz because they will be rewarded with money.

You can make yourself believe something when you are facing a forced choice between just two options, but no one is forcing you to choose a religion.

It is irresponsible to believe something for which you have no evidence, such as that there will be an earthquake in Antarctica on a particular date in the future.

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