Puddleglum's Wager

Anyone who has been around philosophical circles – or better yet, the apologetics movement – has heard of Pascal’s Wager. Pascal tells us that the consequences of rejecting Christ in this life are eternally dreadful, while the consequences of following Christ in this life are eternally favorable. God may or may not exist, but any wise person is going to bet on God.

There have been a number of criticisms of Pascal’s Wager over the years. Which God should we bet on? If we believe Pascal, then what do we do about Zeus, Apollo, and Mars? What about Allah? The wager cannot specify the Christian God. Perhaps most troubling, the wager makes the emphasis of the gospel lie in the some future existence. It strips Christianity of its implications for here and now.

That’s where Puddleglum comes in. In the Silver Chair, he and the children are in Underland. In a moment of inspiration, he says, "Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all of those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones."

Puddleglum does not relegate faith in Aslan to a bet on the future life. He says belief in Aslan and the world above are not only a future hope, they make life worth living here and now. Belief has an enormous role in molding our behaviors right now, and can provide profound meaning and purpose to our lives.

Maybe the church has been spending too much time trying to get people to hedge their bets. Many have been far too good at presenting the gospel with all of the life sucked out of it, reducing it to a formula for entering a really cool afterlife. They have bought Pascal’s Wager.

Perhaps a more meaningful – and productive – move would be to focus not just on the “benefits” of following Christ (specifically as that relates to the afterlife), but on the power and life-changing effects Christ can have here and now. Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Jesus was never concerned about just getting people into heaven. He was always trying to help them enter the Kingdom of God. Maybe we should be more like Puddleglum – and Jesus.