Weekly Uplook - October 15
Happy Sunny Saturday in October,
This is actually something to be happy about. According to currentresults.com, the sun's rays reach the ground in Seattle during 37 percent of daylight hours on average in October, for a total of 124 hours in the month. Typically on 5 days this month the sky is mainly clear, with at most 30 percent cloud cover. That is only 16% of the days which look like today on average for October. On top of that there is a playoff baseball game in Seattle today, the first in 21 years. The home team is currently behind 2 games to none in a 5 game series and the score of the current game is tied. Of the 88 previous teams in this situation only 14 have triumphed which makes for long odds. I only share these things with you that many times in life it seems that probability and odds seem to come into play.
There was a 17th century mathematician named Blaise Pascal who was also an inventor, writer, and theologian. As you might imagine he is famous for a variety of things but possibly the most familiar to us is often known as “Pascal’s Wager”. Pascal’s Wager paraphrased goes something like this:
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
To wager on rain versus sunshine on an October day in Seattle may not be wise. And while possible, even though I am a loyal Seattle baseball fan, I am aware statistically there is only about a 15% chance of our team going further in the playoffs. However, while faith in God’s existence may not be objectively provable to a skeptic (although many testimonies provide such proof in many ways), the eternal gain/loss which is at stake should make it it an easy wager to take. Step out in faith on God’s promises …and proving faithful you will have gained eternity. And if what we “know” by faith somehow proved to be false (maybe as if we were in a computer simulation or something), then you have lost absolutely nothing and gained a richly fulfilled thriving life here. Pascal says... then “Wager…that He exists…without hesitation.”
Pascal made advances in the area of probability and also made many other quotable insights concerning the kingdom of God. They all rest on his “wager” that God indeed exists and can be known by human beings and that this God has chosen to be involved intimately with humanity. He wishes to be involved in your life as well. Will you let him?
Blessings to you all.
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
This is actually something to be happy about. According to currentresults.com, the sun's rays reach the ground in Seattle during 37 percent of daylight hours on average in October, for a total of 124 hours in the month. Typically on 5 days this month the sky is mainly clear, with at most 30 percent cloud cover. That is only 16% of the days which look like today on average for October. On top of that there is a playoff baseball game in Seattle today, the first in 21 years. The home team is currently behind 2 games to none in a 5 game series and the score of the current game is tied. Of the 88 previous teams in this situation only 14 have triumphed which makes for long odds. I only share these things with you that many times in life it seems that probability and odds seem to come into play.
There was a 17th century mathematician named Blaise Pascal who was also an inventor, writer, and theologian. As you might imagine he is famous for a variety of things but possibly the most familiar to us is often known as “Pascal’s Wager”. Pascal’s Wager paraphrased goes something like this:
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
To wager on rain versus sunshine on an October day in Seattle may not be wise. And while possible, even though I am a loyal Seattle baseball fan, I am aware statistically there is only about a 15% chance of our team going further in the playoffs. However, while faith in God’s existence may not be objectively provable to a skeptic (although many testimonies provide such proof in many ways), the eternal gain/loss which is at stake should make it it an easy wager to take. Step out in faith on God’s promises …and proving faithful you will have gained eternity. And if what we “know” by faith somehow proved to be false (maybe as if we were in a computer simulation or something), then you have lost absolutely nothing and gained a richly fulfilled thriving life here. Pascal says... then “Wager…that He exists…without hesitation.”
Pascal made advances in the area of probability and also made many other quotable insights concerning the kingdom of God. They all rest on his “wager” that God indeed exists and can be known by human beings and that this God has chosen to be involved intimately with humanity. He wishes to be involved in your life as well. Will you let him?
Blessings to you all.
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
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