
The Numbers Show it: Christian Decline Is Over Thanks to Today's 'Pascal's Wager'
Christianity appears to be on the rise in some parts of the West, or at the very least, the Christian religion has not been met with quite the same degree of hostility and skepticism in recent years.
We’ve all seen major cultural figures, from Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson to Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson, start making nods to Christianity in various ways.
But beyond right-leaning podcasters and political figures, this trend may have some backing in the data.
The most recent Religious Landscape Study from Pew Research Center shockingly showed just last month that 62 percent of Americans call themselves Christians, a massive dropoff from a few decades ago, but also an indication that the decline has reached its end.
Among young people especially, there is an increased openness toward Christianity, particularly among young men who happen to find themselves on the political right.
Perhaps that aligns with one viral X post that sometimes makes the rounds, and indeed resurfaced as the country digested this surprising new data about the status of the Christian faith.
The X post, which perhaps fittingly has a young man, the enigmatic and brash “Stranger Things” character Billy Hargrove, lifting weights and smoking a cigarette in the background, seeks to offer the world “Pascal’s wager in the 21st century.”
The wager asserts that “God may or may not be real, but the other side is so passionate, so committed to worshipping Satan, evil, homosexuality and corrupting children that even if god wasn’t real, believing in him to fend these demons off is preferable.”
Basically. pic.twitter.com/rlsXdG0lY2
— Carl Benjamin (@Sargon_of_Akkad) February 18, 2024
The actual Pascal’s wager, as typically summarized, essentially states that it’s rational to believe in God because the loss of suffering eternal punishment from not believing in God and being wrong is far worse than the loss of merely ceasing to exist after believing in God and being wrong.
That’s not at all how the Bible presents the God who reveals himself in creation and sets forth his plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, but that’s a story for another time.
In any case, it’s true that Americans, and young conservative men in particular, are looking at the encroaching evil all around us, and therefore taking a second look at the religion, and the God, who has kept that evil subdued in the West for so many centuries.
Even those who would have scoffed at Christianity only a few years ago are now dismayed by unprecedented government tyranny, pedophilia among our elites, genital mutilation of children, and countless other heinous evils.
Though they may not buy into the particular truths of the Christian religion, especially the miracles that would chafe against our secularism, materialism, and rationalism, they at least recognize that the morality of Christianity can keep evil at bay and serve as a foundation for a cohesive society.
This is where Christians can start to serve as a light in our day.
We must witness to the fact that the functionality of the Christian faith points to the truth of the Christian faith.
Someone believing the “Pascal’s wager in the 21st century” may live a better life on this side of eternity, but without repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, their life on the other side of eternity will remain unbearable.
“Pascal’s wager in the 21st century” may work to “fend these demons off” for a short time through a general regard for Christianity.
But we need the true and living Christ to keep the demons away forever, both in our individual lives and in the life of our civilization.
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