Philosophy

Five pages long

Either you can pick from 2:


1) Pascal’s Wager. Pascal argues that we should believe in God, essentially, because it’s the “best bet” – if you think there’s any chance that God exists and provides infinite rewards and punishments for faith and its lack, you should try to develop faith, because a tiny chance of an infinite payoff effectively outweighs whatever worldly pain and suffering you might have to go through in order to live and believe a faith. Offer a critical discussion of his argument and assess how strong you think it is.

or


2) Miracles. David Hume gives several interesting arguments to the effect that one should never believe that a miracle has occurred on the basis of testimony. (His arguments don’t apply to someone who has personally witnessed a miracle.) Carefully evaluate some or all of these arguments and either support or reject Hume’s overall position.'