Atheist's wager

{{Short description|Argument as to whether a good life with a positive legacy necessitates existence of God}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}

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The Atheist's wager, coined by the philosopher Michael Martin and published in his 1990 book Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, is an atheistic response to Pascal's wager regarding the existence of God.{{Cite book |last=Oppy |first=Graham |url= |title=A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy |publisher=Wiley |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-119-11918-0 |edition=First |pages=221}}

One version of the Atheist's wager suggests that since a kind and loving god would reward good deeds – and that if no gods exist, good deeds would still leave a positive legacy – one should live a good life without religion.{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/atheismphilosoph00mart_0 |title=Atheism: A Philosophical Justification |publisher=Temple University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8772-2642-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/atheismphilosoph00mart_0/page/232 232–238] |url-access=registration}}{{cite book |author=Berry |first=Alvin F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqxSJcoZVKIC&pg=PA11 |title=So What If...the God of the Bible Exists...Does It Really Matter at the End ... |publisher=Dog Ear Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-457-50020-6 |page=10}} This argument assumes that if a god exists, they are benevolent and just, rather than arbitrary or punitive in their judgment of human actions. This contrasts with Pascal's wager, which presumes a god who rewards belief and punishes disbelief regardless of moral conduct. Philosophers such as John Schellenberg have argued that a perfectly just deity would be more likely to reward sincere moral behavior and intellectual honesty rather than belief for its own sake.{{Cite book |last=Schellenberg |first=John L. |title=The Hiddenness Argument: Philosophy’s New Challenge to Belief in God |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-873308-9 |pages=52–55}} Another formulation suggests that a god may reward honest disbelief and punish a dishonest belief in the divine.{{cite book |author=Stahl |first=Philip A. |url=https://archive.org/details/atheismbeginners00phil |title=Atheism: A Beginner's Handbook: All You Wanted to Know About Atheism and Why |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-5954-2737-6 |pages=39–42 |publisher=iUniverse |url-access=registration}}