Why do you think these people are celebrating?

Euro Millions Winners Won £45million Won £161million Won £41million

By the end of the lesson… You will be able to explain how the Euro Millions winners link to our learning!

Pascal’s Wager Learning Objective: Is Pascal’s Wager a convincing argument to believe in God? I can explain Pascal’s Wager in my own words. I can apply the argument by creating my own advert. I can evaluate whether this is a convincing enough argument to believe in God.

Pascal’s Wager Born in France in 1623 He was a genius: a leading mathematician, physicist and engineer. He said that God’s existence can neither be proved nor disproved. It is nothing more than a gamble.

Pascal’s Wager You cannot avoid making a gamble on God’s existence. You can choose whether or not you play the lottery etc but you cannot avoid making this bet. You either choose to live in this world as though God exists You choose to live in this world as if He does not exist.

Pascal’s Wager Option 1: If God does not exist and you do not believe in God, then you win nothing and lose nothing. Option 3: If God does exist and you choose not to believe in God then you may end up in Hell – Hell is terrible and whatever else you do you should try to avoid it. Option 2: If God does not exist and you believe in God, then you win nothing and lose very little (at the most, you may live a virtuous life which may cause some loss of enjoyment, but not a great deal). You won’t even get the satisfaction of knowing you were right as you’ll be dead! Option 4: If God does exist and you choose to believe in God, then you may end up in Heaven which is the best possible outcome.

Over to you!!! With the person next to you, you will each have 30 seconds to explain Pascal’s Wager as best you can in your own words. Listen carefully as you will be judging their explanation.

How good was your explanation? Watch Stephen Fry’s explanation of Pascal’s Wager. Was your partners explanation as good as his or better? a) Not quite as good as Stephen Fry’s c) Better than Stephen Fry’s b) As good as Stephen Fry’s utube.com/watc h?v=1PXnb8IKl4 Y

Making links Discuss with the person next to you how Pascal’s Wager links to our Euro Millions winners from the beginning of the lesson.

Pascal’s Wager Radio Advert rVz6RlE mhXCmXLU You are an advertising executive. You have been asked to create a radio advert encouraging people to place their bets on God’s existence. You can work in pairs to create your radio script. It needs to be 30 seconds long. The more jingles the merrier!!!

Evaluate Pascal is suggesting that our best option is to believe in God. But a main weakness of the argument is whether people can really make themselves believe in God if they are an atheist. Pascal suggests that people can place themselves in a position where you might come to believe in God. For instance, a person might go to church, mix with believers, read books about religion and hope that they might come to believe. Could you make yourself believe in God if you are not already religious?

Unit Overviews You are now going to complete your unit overview for this lesson. 1)On your continuum line place a cross to show your opinion on the question ‘Does God exist?’ Has this lesson on Pascal’s Wager changed your mind? 2)In the box explain whether you think it is possible to make yourself believe in God even if you do not think there is enough evidence. x I do not think it is possible to make yourself believe in God because just going to church is not going to make you change your mind. Faith in God is not that easy.