ABSTRACT
Blaise Pascal, a French physicist, philosopher, mathematician, and mystic, was interested in the question of whether it could be rational to believe in God even if the people think it is enormously improbable that God exists. His argument has come to be called Pascal’s Wager , because Pascal argues that believing that God exists is a sensible wager, even if there is no evidence that God exists. Pascal aimed to provide a prudential reason, not an evidential reason. In The Will to Believe, William James says that a person is entitled to believe in God for purely prudential reasons if the belief provides a "vital benefit" and if no decision about theism can be made on the basis of the evidence available. Pascal’s wager, or something very like it, can be found in Islamic philosophy centuries before Pascal. Al-Ghazali starts with several real-life examples involving risk.
