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My family is not religious. With my mom growing up in Communist China singing songs of how great Mao Zedong is, Mao was her god and not the traditional “being than which nothing greater can be conceived,” as the philosopher and monk Anselm of Canterbury put it. So I found a particular interaction peculiar, even at my young age, regarding religion. Our family car pulled to a stop at a red light, and to our right was a church. My sister asked me, “Do you believe in God?” She always manages to come up with the most random questions at the right times. With a strong suit in mathematics and science, I wasn’t even sure I knew who or what God was.
I looked at my mom hoping that she’d have the answer for me, but it was clear she did not have one either. She managed a dismissive, “Of course she believes in God.”
I wonder what prompted that response. My family never went to church and never mentioned God. It must mean that she thought it was better to say that I did believe in God rather than that I did not. If that was true, why didn’t my mom believe in God or go to church?
Blaise Pascal, famous mathematician and philosopher, provided an answer in his essay “Pensées”. He posited that believing in God means, “that you will have gambled on something that is certain, infinite and has cost you nothing.” He not only based his claim on the possibilities of the treasures one would receive upon going to heaven, but also about the gain in the current life such as having all the favorable attributes like being honest…
