Pascal’s Wager
If Pascal’s Wager is best interpreted as a guide to action — the expected payoff of belief in X warrants acting to obtain belief in X — then it’s a singularly unhelpful one: many religions make claims that must be characterised as infinite payoffs so their respective expected payoffs must also be infinite and thus equivalent. So the wager provides no basis for distinguishing which choice to make but, at best, winnows the pool a little by rejecting those religions which offer more modest bribes.
