Azrael has descended. The inevitable is finally here. His arrival serves as an alarm that your time in the realm of the living is up. While you are paralyzed with terror, eyes wide open, your human brain cracking under the sheer magnitude of what’s unfolding in front of you, the realization that there is actually a Heaven and a Hell hits you with the force of a charging bull. Your life flashes by and everything that you were taught about morality and righteousness suddenly makes sense. The only problem is that the luxury of time no longer exists since you are headed towards a Limbo that exists between this world and the Hereafter. It exists out of the Space-Time Continuum as we know it. You must wait there until the Sirens of Reckoning are sounded, summoning the dead to rise again and walk the Earth one last time. Let us call this Outcome A.
Now consider this. You have died. Whatever life force drove you has flickered out. The synapses in your brain are firing with an ever-dwindling frequency. The heart and the lungs are simmering down. The constant deluge of sensory information is rapidly decreasing in volume until no sight, smell, sound, taste or touch remains. Emptiness is the only reality now. The jaws of Oblivion have snapped shut around you. The only way to be now, is not to be. A dreamless slumber from which there is no waking up. Ever. Game over. Let us call this Outcome B.
Being a living human who cannot come into contact with those who have already passed away, you cannot say with 100% accuracy whether something waits for us after this life or not. All we can do is look for answers in our various faiths in order to prevent ourselves from spiraling down into an existential crisis. The problem that I often think about is a gambit that was proposed by Blaise Pascal known as Pascal’s Gambit or Pascal’s Wager. Those of you who have studied Physics or Chem, even at the matriculation level, might remember that one of the units we use to measure pressure is Pascal. Same guy.
The gambit is pretty simple. Imagine the two possible outcomes A and B as described in the first two paragraphs. Pascal basically says that any rational and sensible human being would never choose to be an atheist. The reasoning behind this statement of his is rather fascinating. If you believe in God and Outcome A is true then you are in for an eternal reward and if Outcome B is true then nothing happens. If you do not believe in God and Outcome A is true then you are in for an eternal punishment and if Outcome B is true then nothing happens. So, believing is the smarter choice. Believing is the wiser decision.
One refutation to this gambit or way of thinking is that it essentially means that you are bargaining with God. I have been thinking about this problem over the last 4 years and I am not sure if I am close to a satisfactory answer. But I would love if you guys, while hating me for writing something this lengthy, could think about it and post your thoughts in the comments. Again, my apologies for a post this big.
