Taking Pascal's Wager : Faith, Evidence and the Abundant Life PDF
Preview Taking Pascal's Wager : Faith, Evidence and the Abundant Life
T A K I N G P A S C A L ’ S W A G E R FAITH, EVIDENCE ABUNDANT LIFE and the MICHAEL ROTA InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 ivpress.com [email protected] ©2016 by Michael Rota All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press ® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org. Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover design: David Fassett Interior design: Beth McGill Images: ladder: jangeltun/iStockphoto high diver: 1940s MAN POISED MIDAIR ARMS OUT JUMPING FROM DIVING BOARD INTO POOL (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images) ISBN 978-0-8308-9999-9 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-5136-2 (print) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rota, Michael, 1975- author. Title: Taking Pascal’s wager : faith, evidence, and the abundant life / Michael Rota. Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016007922 (print) | LCCN 2016010662 (ebook) | ISBN 9780830851362 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830899999 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Faith and reason--Christianity. | Apologetics. | Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662. Pensâees. | Philosophical theology. Classification: LCC BT50 .R645 2016 (print) | LCC BT50 (ebook) | DDC 239--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007922 To my parents CONTENTS Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 11 Part 1 Uncertainty and Commitment 1 A Curious Offer 21 2 Pascal’s Wager: The Basic Argument 30 3 Objections to the Wager: Moral Reservations and the Cost of Commitment 52 4 More Objections to the Wager: Other Religions and Christianity 65 Part 2 Evidence 5 Where Did Physical Things Come From? 83 6 Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? 99 7 A Primer on Probability 113 8 God and the Multiverse 125 9 The Beauty and Existential Resonance of Christianity 135 10 Counterevidence: Divine Hiddenness and Evil 143 11 Historical Evidence for Christianity: The Resurrection 154 12 Miracle or Myth? 165 Part 3 Saying Yes to God 13 Dietrich Bonhoeffer 181 14 Jean Vanier 195 15 Immaculée Ilibagiza 211 Conclusion: Taking the Wager 221 Notes 223 Author Index 245 Subject Index 247 Scripture Index 249 Praise for Taking Pascal’s Wager 250 About the Author 252 More Titles from InterVarsity Press 253 IVP Academic Textbook Selector 254 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I’m very grateful to the many people who have helped shape this book. Andy Crouch supplied crucial guidance early in the writing process, and Greg Boyd, Liz Kelly, Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Michael Murray and Eleonore Stump assisted me in various ways with the proposal. A sabbatical fellowship from the University of St. Thomas during Fall 2013 provided unin- terrupted time to begin work on the project in earnest. I’m particularly appreciative of the insightful criticism of the manuscript (in whole or in part) offered by Luke Barnes, Lawrence Feingold, Matthews Grant, Andrew Le Peau, Neil Manson, Thomas Nechyba, Tim Pawl, Kenny Pearce, Ted Poston, Josh Rasmussen, Ann Rota, Erin Rota, Mary Ryan, Mark Spencer, James Taylor, David Tritelli, two external reviewers for InterVarsity Press, and especially by my editor at IVP, David McNutt. I present a more technical but abbreviated version of the argument of part one in “A Better Version of Pascal’s Wager,” forthcoming in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and I thank the editor of that journal, David Clemenson, for permission to use sections of that article in this book. David Clemenson, Jeff Jordan, Liz Jackson, Michael Loux and two anonymous ref- erees for ACPQ provided helpful comments on drafts of that paper, comments that influenced my treatment of the wager here. I’m also thankful to the John Templeton Foundation, both for funding the Evolution and Theology of Cooperation project, through which I did a post- doctoral fellowship with Sarah Coakley and Martin Nowak at Harvard Uni- versity, and for funding the St. Thomas Summer Seminars in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology, thanks to which I’ve had the opportunity to learn from my co-organizer Dean Zimmerman and a host of talented 10 Taking Pascal’s Wager speakers and participants on most of the major topics discussed in this book. Especially formative were talks by or conversations with Luke Barnes, Nevin Climenhaga, Robin Collins, William Lane Craig, Andy Crouch, Brian Cutter, Evan Fales, Dan Greco, John Hawthorne, John Keller, Tom Kelly, Michael Licona, David Manley, Neil Manson, Bradley Monton, John Pittard, Al Plantinga, Alexander Pruss, John Schellenberg, Elliott Sober, Eleonore Stump and Peter van Inwagen. Michael Murray, John Churchill, Alex Arnold and Dan Martin at JTF have all been a pleasure to work with. My able research assistants, Matt Sweeney and Kieran Driver, tracked down references with alacrity and located some helpful books I might not otherwise have found. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my mentor, Eleonore Stump, who has contributed to my philosophical education more than anyone else, and to Peter Kreeft, from whose book Fundamentals of the Faith I first learned about Pascal’s wager, as an undergraduate. Most of all, I’m grateful to my caring wife, Ann, for her unfailing encour- agement, and to my parents for their love and confidence in me.
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