Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Scientific and Spiritual Prodigy

[1623-1662]

Blaise Pascal, the French genius who in his brief lifetime made numerous world-changing discoveries knew there was much, much more than Science. Blaise Pascal grew up in Paris, schooled at home by his father. He showed early promise: at age eight he wrote his first scientific paper; at 16 he wrote a mathematical essay that broke new ground in the field of geometry. When he was 19, Pascal invented a calculating "machine", a forerunner of modern computers.

 At 23, he made major discoveries in physics and proved the existence of the vacuum. This paved the way for hypodermic syringes, barometers, and hydraulic devices. Pascal also came up with the mathematical theory of probability and helped shape the field of calculus.

Beginning in his teen years, he often suffered great pain in his legs; as an adult he became partially crippled. One night, unable to sleep due to the pain, he arose and wrote down the solution to a problem that advanced a very difficult area of mathematics. Yet, though Pascal knew very well the power of the mind and the potential of human reason, he also knew that people cannot solve the deepest mysteries and needs of life with their minds alone. He understood that mankind is at the same time both very great and also very flawed. Through various personal trials, Pascal became more and more a religious man.

He was much affected when his niece was miraculously healed (by God working through someone) of a tumor or stubborn disease. After he was nearly killed in a carriage accident, he was nearly instantly & deeply converted  in 1654 (age 31) to a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. 

The day on which he found peace with God was so important to him that he wrote a reminder of it on parchment and sewed it into the lining of his coat. He kept this coat for the rest of his life, and the note was found there when he died at age 39. In it he told how (at age 31) at "...about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve, fire". The God that he had encountered was "the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob," and "not of the philosophers and scholars." He ended by writing,

"I will not forget thy word."

For the next eight years, he devoted his life to jotting down "thoughts"...his writing, Pensees...his defense of the Christian faith. The book can be found on-line; and Dr. Kenneth Boa has produced a CD commentary that can be separately obtained (The Great Books Audio CD Series). 

In 1662, from the room where he lay painfully dying, Pascal observed the plight of the poor in the streets, having to trudge long distances while the rich comfortably rode.

One of his last great ideas was the bus...public transportation.

Among the many quotable quotes of this greatest of all French thinkers is,

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself" (148/428).

He also constructed a wager as to the truth of God; Christianity called Pascal's wager:

Either Christianity is true or it's false.

 If you bet that it's true, and you believe in God and submit to Him, then if it IS true, you've gained God, heaven, and everything else. If it's false, you've lost nothing, but you've had a good life marked by peace and the illusion that ultimately, everything makes sense.

If you bet that Christianity is not true, and it's false, you've lost nothing.

But if you bet that it's false, and it turns out to be true, you've lost everything and you get to spend eternity in hell.

His wager is an attempt to say to doubters that belief in Jesus is a can't-lose situation...if Jesus is a lie (the "bet" for Jesus is lost), yet you live according to His teaching, you can't help but live a "good" present life; and whatever atheists believe will come to pass eternally.

If the bet for Jesus is won (Jesus believers/followers actually do have hold of THE TRUTH), then you get the "good" current life AND eternal dwelling with God when you die. Since you get a good current life by following Jesus (whether the facts of Jesus are true or false), then it only make sense to follow Jesus.