Satan Is Happy With My Progress
Initially, I blamed my brother-in-law for corrupting my son. He influenced him with his own ideology regarding “God” and that ideology was basically “only stupid people believe in God”. I was raised in the Catholic tradition and felt close to my faith. I had believed in the Superior Being of the Judeo-Christian religion and I wanted my son to know him too. I did this by placing him in Catholic educational school systems. Using game theory, there can be no arrived at, definitive conclusion to the question, “Does God exist?” The only arrived at conclusion could be is that it is impossible to actually “know God” because “God’s” status is one of “indeterminacy.” And borrowing from Blaise Pascal’s work, Pensées (1760), his arrived at position was not as to whether God exists or as to whether God doesn’t exist but whether or not it is reasonable and justifiable for a person to believe in the existence of a Superior Being with supernatural powers in an uncertain world. And, under those conditions, it is very justified for any prudent person, in an uncertain world, to believe in a Superior Being such as the God in the Judeo-Christian world. But Pascal also said, “One understands nothing of the works of God unless he starts from the principle that God willed to blind some and enlighten others.” My son’s uncle’s famous tout as well. A statement where he implies, he is not blind and has a better dominant strategy than just to be a “follower”. In game theory, it’s all about dominant strategy. What’s your best dominant strategy in the game?
Initially, I blamed my brother-in-law for his corrupting influence over my son. However, I failed to address the fact that my son, in light of his full intellectual faculties, is capable of arriving at his own conclusions. My son does not believe in any Superior Being with supernatural powers as written about in the Hebrew Bible and neither do I anymore. Of course, I believe in Superior Beings without supernatural powers; although a well-developed, well-polished, and near-perfect mathematical prowess comes pretty darn close to superhuman power in my opinion. It is, nonetheless, a mortal talent and skill revealing a person’s level of IQ. Since I placed him in an educational school system that fosters Christian faith, I assume he performed a formal search for the “Superior Being” known as “God” and, with the aid and guidance of my brother-in-law, arrived at a decision using the payoff matrix of Pascal’s wager; Person does not believe in God and finds that God does not exist where the payoff in the matrix is: “Nonbelief Justified with finite rewards.” This is the dominant strategy of many intelligent people in positions of at least some relatively dominance and power over themselves and others. Of course, this is not the dominant strategy for everyone. There are some individuals whose best dominant strategy is to believe in “God” and become one of his “followers” where the arrived at best possible payout would be to believe in “God” and believe “God” existence where, if using Pascal’s wager, the payoff matrix is: “Belief justified (for whatever reason or arrived at conclusion “God” made himself manifest in the individual's life) with infinite rewards both on Earth and in Heaven.” Of course, this was the case for Eve when she resided in the Garden of Eden with Adam. Whereupon she chose to “eat the fruit”, as instructed by the Serpent, and to which she found herself expelled from “Paradise.”
My reason for wanting my son to come to know “God” was because I hoped it would foster character traits important for service and good leadership. I believe I achieved this in that my son, as he is sensitive and carrying, and capable of empathy. So, the fact that he does not believe in “God” is irrelevant now. I believe I did a fairly decent job at raising him. Although, this was a shared responsibility between myself and other family members. I cannot take sole responsibility for outcomes. There were many influencing individuals in his life.
Searching for “God” can make for a wonderful, sometimes delusional, and mind-altering experience. It is, however, the best mind-altering substance on the market as there are little to no side effects. At least, in my opinion.
