Blaise Pascal, Renaissance Man–Literally

I have such respect for Pascal that I considered naming our son after him.  (I thought “Pascal Shields” had a nice ring to it, but my wife wasn’t having it. Maybe if we lived in France?)

Pascal made important contributions to both math and physics but he’s perhaps best known for his theological “wager,” that it makes sense to believe in God, since if He exists, you’ll be very glad you did, and if He doesn’t, you haven’t lost anything.  I counter that this is not how we accept or reject religious tenets.