The Perfect Religion

Paper Summary:

A look at how the belief in a religion or deity has become weaker over the centuries. The writer examines what makes a 'perfect' religion, defines atheism, and looks at current philosophies of religion.

From the Paper:

"Pascal said "If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing. But if you don't believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to Hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist." This argument is known as Pascal Wager. It contains several flaws. One of the biggest flaws is that it is based on the assumption that the two possibilities are equally likely. If, in fact, the possibility of the existence of God is close to zero, the argument becomes much less persuasive. So, sadly, the argument is only likely to convince those who believe already. Devotees of a particular faith are likely to believe that a definition ought to describe the true quality of religion. They are not happy with the concept that d definition is a heuristic device, useful for one purpose, but of no value to another. They are impatient with a definition that may seem to be a subtle evasion of an obvious truth. The strong belief in God makes them blind to seeing any other possibilities objectively."

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