[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Originally Posted by joe707

I am saying that the minimum overall risk is not ‘0’ - it is painful and confusing for all your earthly days, because one's mind is always projected into an unknown future, dictated by an idea. That is not ‘neutral’.

I think you might be suffering from a bad dose of guilt and inadequacy. I’m sure you are skilled at something and others are impressed by a facility that you find second nature. I find being a True Christian™ second nature – no effort at all, now I am used to it. I do not worry, my life is a pleasant stroll to Eternity.

And is logic a useful tool to decide whether one should even approach God?

As this discussion revolves around Pascal’s wager, and as Pascal’s Wager concerns logic, your question is inappropriate.

However, all roads to The Lord are good roads.

Is that what first drew you to the church? A statistical exercise? Not for me.

No, but if only one soul is saved…

You are right, 70 years as a percentage of infinity is indeed nothing, but eternity is easily misunderstood. It does not exist in the future or the past, so such relations make no sense. It can not be computed or understood by the mind alone for this reason.

As long as God understands, is this not sufficient?

You are right, Pascal may not have expressly denied the possibility of salvation in this life, but it is implicit in the theology. Your example emphasizes this – the preconditions for salvation may happen right before earthly death but the actual salvation is always, always just beyond. You say it is never possible to have it now.

This is like saying that you pay insurance against an eventuality and do not know if it is worth it until the eventuality happens (and let's face it, it may not.) How many people you know sit around worrying about their insurance policies? Are they normal?