Argument From Inconsistent Revelations - Mathematical Description

Mathematical Description

If it were to be assumed that:

  • The existence of some god is certain,
  • There is some number (n) of distinct, mutually exclusive interpretations of that god one could believe in,
  • There is no way to tell which one, if any, were true a priori

then the probability of having chosen to practice the correct religion (through upbringing or by making Pascal's Wager) is 1⁄n. Therefore, if there exist more than two distinct faiths, the probability that a person who chooses to believe in either faith has chosen the correct one would be less than 1 in 2 (50% or 1⁄2).

Since there are hundreds of religions in existence, some having thousands of sects with competing interpretations, the probability that a given person's religion should happen to be the one that is true (to the exclusion of all others) is diminishingly small.

Read more about this topic:  Argument From Inconsistent Revelations

Famous quotes containing the words mathematical and/or description:

    As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.
    Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

    As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)