10 - The Role of Pascal’s Wager in Authentic Religious Commitment

Summary

In chapter 10, Joshua Golding explores the concept of authentic belief, and more specifically, what it means to have an authentic religious belief. Golding thereby raises a number of concerns about the sort of belief-states that would come about through the Wager, whether the Wager could engender an actual belief-state, whether it promotes something more akin to a “self-brainwashing,” and whether its appeal to self-interest can be understood as consistent with the belief-states proper to religion. Golding suggests that at least some worries about the Wager can be overcome if, instead of belief, it is understood as an argument in support of a “pragmatic assumption,” wherein one does not hold to the truth of a proposition, but rather uses it more as a maxim to guide one’s actions. Golding then applies the distinction between belief and pragmatic assumption to Judaism, differentiating between aspects of Jewish religious life for which a “pragmatic assumption” is sufficient and aspects that require full-fledged and authentic belief.