When the topic of religious beliefs is brought up, everyone seems to have their own unique opinions on the subject. Some people say religious beliefs are completely and utterly outrageous and that anyone who has them should be considered an incompetent fool. These are the people that think these beliefs are neither rational nor reasonable. Some say that without religious beliefs there would be no purpose for human beings in the world; in fact, there would be no purpose for anything in the world. These are the people that think these beliefs are both rational and reasonable. While others say that religious beliefs depend on the individuals' standards and could be reasonable or rational depending on certain circumstances. I tend to fall more…show more content… Also, believers will end up leading better lives anyway even if they are wrong about God's existing for fear that if they lead lives of sin that they would go to hell. For believers will not be plagued by vice and sin which could end up making them miserable on earth. If God does exist, then believers have an infinite gain of spending the rest of their life in heaven. Those who do not believe risk the infinite loss of going to hell if God does exist. If God doesn't exist, then non-believers only have a finite gain because they win the wager but that's all they win. Pascal offers a motivating argument to persuade people to believe in God. His conclusion is not that God exists but that a person ought to believe despite the lack of evidence or…show more content… People who live in the religious sphere are submerged in paradox. Religious believers such as the biblical Abraham must seemingly give up everything in order to regain everything. You must lose the world and your old self only to gain everything even a new self. Kierkegaard likens faith to a "divine madness." It involves an absurdity from the perspective of the rational mind. There will never be evidence that is convincing enough to make any individual have to believe. Faith is not an objective truth like math, history or science which is true for all and communicable. Instead, faith is a subjective truth which the individual is intensely and passionately involved with. Kierkegaard believes that a person's relationship with God is more experiential than rational. Faith is a matter of feeling and not knowing. An individual is left alone to make a leap of faith that cannot be justified by means of reason or supported by logical proofs or scientific
