“Man is the most incomprehensible creation of nature for himself,” said the physicist and philosopher Blaz Pascal. – It is difficult for him to understand what the body is is even more difficult – what is the spirit, and it is completely incomprehensible how the body can connect with the spirit. There is no task for a person more insoluble, but meanwhile he is himself “.

Andre Comte-Sponville – Modern French philosopher, author of many books and articles. At the age of 18 he lost faith in God and since then he considers himself an atheist. His favorite topics are freedom, wisdom, searching for meaning.

Everyone knows the name of the ingenious scientist Pascal, at least as a unit of pressure measurement or the name of the programming language. He lived for only 39 years, but managed to lay the foundations of several directions in mathematics, discovered atmospheric pressure, formulated the basic law of hydrostatics … However, Pascal’s unique thinker does not make his scientific achievements, but the gift of the writer, mysticism and expert on the human soul. I do not know other people who, like Pascal, would equally deeply understand nature and man, would be so generously gifted with everyone: mind, word and faith. He is often refused the right to be called a philosopher – after all, he did not invent his own system and wrote only two books: journalistic passionate “letters to the provincial”, calling for a living, sincere faith, and thin, fascinatingly deep “thoughts” – notes published by friends after hisof death. But he did something else – he understood after the Montean and long before Nietzsche, the lie and hypocrisy of the world. This Christian did not believe in anything – no other than God. Everything else – secular life, politics, love – under his piercing look exposes our delusions, our little, our illusions.

Everyone wants to be happy, says Pascal, but no one can achieve happiness on earth. “We never live, but only have to live;We always intend to be happy, but it is inevitable that we will never be happy “. You can avoid misfortune only through faith. If you disagree, you will have to deal with Pascal. And arguing it is not easy ..

His dates

Keys to understanding

Our greatness. And insignificance

Compared to infinity, he is nothing, and in comparison with non -existence, he is all. However, a person surpasses the universe that embraces him: he is higher than it, because he thinks. The main danger to a person is the desire to forget. Boredom is intolerable for us: Bored, we cannot forget

Nar lufttemperaturen overstiger den tilladte hastighed, bliver den simpelthen uudholdelig for enhver fysisk aktivitet – og kob viagra danmark lange gature og for sex. Derfor er par ekstremt vanskelige i disse dage at tilbringe tid i varme knus hver. Dog anbefaler lager og sexologer pa karlighed pa enhver made, de ikke nagter at behage – kun de rader dem til at respektere nogle henstillinger.

that non -existence awaits us. Hence many goals that are not valuable on their own, but by the fact that they occupy us, give us a reason to act.

This is what Pascal calls entertainment: we do everything that we do with the goal of distracting and forgetting. Forget that we are unhappy and that we have to die. In the last years of his life, Pascal ceased to engage in science, apparently considering it and its entertainment. He made an exception only once: in order to distract from toothache, he investigated the properties of cycloid – the trajectory of the point of the point on the rim of the rolling wheel – and solved all the tasks associated with it.

Hear flesh, mind and heart

Pascal distinguishes three levels of human life: flesh where strength and lust act, the mind where evidence reign, and the heart where love rule. These levels are incompatible: power can nothing against the truth, and truth is against power;And neither one nor the other will replace love. Pascal’s conclusion is penetrating and strict: in our world, force always prevails, but it is neither an argument (for reason), nor value (for the heart). A person is not with his mind, but feels God with his heart.

At the same time, scientific knowledge is autonomous and excellent from the truths of faith. I was lucky: he experienced the highest insights with both mind and heart. On November 23, 1654, he survived the experience of the divine presence that he recorded on a piece of parchment: “Joy. Joy. Joy. Tears of happiness…”

Put on the Almighty

It is unlikely that anyone, except Pascal, would determine the rationality of religious faith in terms of games theory. Pascal argues like this: God is either there or is there no. We cannot know if God exists. But we must make a choice, because this is a matter of life and death. What to do? Pascal replaces the traditional idea of evidence. When it makes sense to make a bet? When the rate is small compared to a possible winning. Here the bet is finite: our earthly life, but you can win the eternity of infinite happiness. As soon as “equal chances of winning and losing” and a huge gap between the bet and winning arise, there is no more room for doubts: you need to bet on God. This does not prove that it exists, but shows that it makes sense to believe in its existence: “If you win, you will receive everything;If you lose, you will not lose anything “.

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