Pascal’s wager in the times after “Death of God”

Abstract

The matter of this paper is to examine the Pascal’s Wager from the contemporary point of view. In the modern philosophy the question of existence of God is still present, and an argumentation of this French philosopher seems to be extremely current, what is manifested particularly in three points: philosophizing in the scientific context, dialogue with a sceptic and even the form of conclusion as a wager (known also as a gambit), that is entertainment. Despite the close connections with the science, Pascal notices its ineffectiveness in searching of the answers to the most burning human questions and proposes to the unbeliever a special argumentation, which refers to gambling games. The contemporary times are marked by the Nietzsche’s idea of “death of God”. In such situation, J. Filek proposes new way of expression of the wager: God is replaced by the man’s responsibility for the world. A man should wager that the world’s condition depends on his responsibility. The responsibility appears here as a new way to God.