Which Religion Does Pascal's Wager Favour the Most?

In the seventeenth-century, French Catholic writer Blaise Pascal proposed a philosophical argument for the existence of God, known today as Pascal's wager, in a work of his known as the Pensées. Whilst I personally do not use Pascal's wager to reaffirm my belief in God, I do think it can generally work well with people who have little-to-no faith in God.

Pascal's Wager's Premise and Flaws

As mentioned earlier, Pascal's wager is a argument meant to demonstrate the existence of God. It states one must always strive to believe in God and serve Him, as doing so yields low risks and high potential rewards:

  1. God exists, and you believe in Him: Your reward (Heaven) is infinite.
  2. God exists, and you do not believe in Him: Your punishment (Hell) is infinite.
  3. God does not exist, and you believe in Him: Your loss (time spent on religion) is relatively small.
  4. God does not exist, and you do not believe in Him: Your reward (freedom from religious rules) is relatively small and temporary.

Pascal's wager is flawed in its treatment of Christianity and atheism as the only belief systems to consider. A righteous Muslim or Jew who believes in God and worships Him alone will still go to Hell, and so will a righteous Hindu who believes in other gods besides the Abrahamic God and worships them, thereby creating a dilemma regarding this wager. But, I propose a solution:

Fixing Pascal's Wager

I will gather several religions and run the gauntlet to see where each belief system's righteous adherents ends up in the afterlives of other religious traditions. I will not include every belief system on the planet, as myths developed by ancient peoples to explain natural phenomena such as those of ancient Greece's are obviously not as convincing as deeply philosophical traditions such as Islam. I also will not include the following religions' niche denominational views on the afterlife; rather, only the mainstream views.


A = Islam. B = Christianity. C = Judaism. D = atheism. E = Hinduism. F = Buddhism. G = Taoism. H = Jainism. I = Sikhism. J = agnosticism. K = Zoroastrianism. L = Confucianism. M = deism. 1 = Muslim. 2 = Christian. 3 = Jew. 4 = atheist. 5 = Hindu. 6 = Buddhist. 7 = Taoist. 8 = Jain. 9 = Sikh. 10 = agnostic. 11 = Zoroastrian. 12 = Confucianist. 13 = deist. Favourable = Heaven, good karma, etc. Unfavourable = Hell, bad karma, etc. Neutral = no particular afterlife.

Overall Conclusion

It is glaringly obvious Islam is favoured most by this expanded Pascal's wager, with righteous Muslims only facing undesirable fates after death if Christianity were true. On the contrary, every other religion's adherents face undesirable fates in at least two or three other traditions' afterlives. Muslims get it easier than other gentiles in the Jewish afterlife due to Islam's compatibility with the Seven Noahide Laws, whilst other religions disobey the Noahide Laws' monotheism commands, therefore earning them undesirable fates in the Jewish afterlife. As mainstream Christianity believes baptism is required for salvation, non-Christians are basically guaranteed Hell. Other religions generally do not have clear statements on the fates of unbelievers, and so their views are not detailed as much in the Sources section, and unbelievers are given the same "favourable" or "neutral" ratings in the above spreadsheet as believers are given.

Sources

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