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As cause begets effect— so men make wine
(A new excuse to bathe in its applause),
Young puppies roar that virgins’ eyes may shine—
And each effect, in turn, begets new cause.
Yet were this flock to seek your canting calm,
You preachly fool, who then would thresh the corn?
Your tithe came from the labour of my arm,
These fields were here before your church was born.
For fear of forfeit, Pascal’s Wagers stand,
But who are you to bleat of sheep and goat
Whose gaudy crook would shame a shepherd’s hand,
Whose consolations tumble out by rote?
As cause begets effect and men make riot,
So parasites should suck their blood— in quiet!
‘Pascal’s Wagers’ French philosopher, mathematician, probability theorist and scientist Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) argued that as we do not (and cannot) know whether God exists, then we should play it safe rather than risk the consequences of denying God’s existence. Thus ‘Pascal's Wagers’ are an attempt to justify belief in God not with an appeal to evidence for God’s existence but rather with an appeal to self-interest. Despite having been refuted many times, his arguments remain a potent inducement to believe for the fearful and the credulous.
