r/v excitment from a Iraq Freind of a Freind

**ronbo** · 14-12-2006, 06:21 AM

Originally Posted by Innkeeper1

I believe the original quote was from the president i served under Ronald Regan and the correct quote was the Marines dont have that problem..semper fie

I was trying to bring it out of memory, but sometimes I don't get it quite right. Thank you
Also, I would like to apologize to all of my ROL club family for all the bad stuff earlier. I just get pushed over the edge when someone says something even remotely negative about our soldiers or veterans.

**SeaRayaWaitin'** · 14-12-2006, 06:31 AM

Originally Posted by crave681

Ah yes.... this matrix is also known as Pascal's Wager...

Pascal's Wager is the French philosopher Blaise Pascal's application of decision theory to the belief in God. (It is also occasionally known as Pascal's Gambit.) It appears in the Pensées, a posthumous collection of Pascal's notes for an unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics. Pascal argued that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists, because the expected value of believing that God exists is always greater than the expected value resulting from non-belief. Indeed, he claimed that the expected value is infinite. With this, he sought to convert those, to Christianity, who were uninterested in religion and unimpressed by previous theological arguments for it.

The wager fails to mention any costs relating to belief. It is argued that there may be both direct costs (time, health, wealth) and opportunity costs. Most modern religions require their followers to spend time attending religious services at houses of worship and to donate money to the maintenance of these places and/or to the needy, when possible. As a result, if a person believes in a God that does not exist, then that person has lost time and money that could have been used for some other purpose. There may be opportunity costs for those who choose to believe: for example, scientific theories such as evolution that appear to some to contradict scripture could theoretically enable a non-believer to discover things and accomplish things the creationist could not. It is also argued that belief incurs a cost by not allowing the believing person to participate in and enjoy actions forbidden by dogma. Many devout people make more noticeable sacrifices for their religious beliefs. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions.

(To Pascal however, such costs were insignificant, since he considered secular life to be without meaning, consisting only in the vacuity of what he called "divertissement." On the other hand, he considered that only the contemplative life of a Christian feeling the love of God was truly rewarding for the human soul, God being to him the "supreme good.")

Others have argued that the utility of salvation cannot be infinite, either via strict finitists or belief that an infinite utility could only be finitely enjoyed by finite humans.

Sigma Summa: To quote a contemporary singstress, "Who will save your soul, if you wont save your own?"
ps: Whatever floats your boat, SeaRay!

HOLY SH.....!!!!

Are you serious??!?!

I am telling the absolute, honest to God truth when I say I have never heard of that. I thought about this 'matrix' on my own one day. Now I admit that anything is possible and I may have subconsciously seen or heard this at some point but I am pretty darn sure that I haven't. Needless to say...WOW...just WOW. Maybe there is such a thing as reincarnation.

**shotgunsusie** · 14-12-2006, 08:18 AM

hearing rumor that there will be an announcement today in baghdad followed by a press conference.

dont stone me i can handle that myself.

**Raditz** · 14-12-2006, 08:26 AM