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Quote by Walter Kaufmann

“What Pascal overlooked was the hair-raising possibility that God might out-Luther Luther. A special area in hell might be reserved for those who go to mass. Or God might punish those whose faith is prompted by prudence. Perhaps God prefers the abstinent to those who whore around with some denomination he despises. Perhaps he reserves special rewards for those who deny themselves the comfort of belief. Perhaps the intellectual ascetic will win all while those who compromised their intellectual integrity lose everything. There are many other possibilities. There might be many gods, including one who favors people like Pascal; but the other gods might overpower or outvote him, à la Homer. Nietzsche might well have applied to Pascal his cutting remark about Kant: when he wagered on God, the great mathematician 'became an idiot.”

Quote by Walter Kaufmann

Work

Critique of Religion and Philosophy

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Author

Walter Kaufmann
Walter Kaufmann

Walter Kaufmann was a German-born American philosopher known for his research on existentialism and German philosophy. His works delved deeply into the thoughts of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre, profoundly influencing 20th-century philosophy. more

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