Pascalian Constraints ~ C. Stephen Evans

~ I just want to jot some notes from C. Stephen Evans’ book, Why Christian Faith Still Makes Sense: A Response to Contemporary Challenges. In this book, Evans describes two principles which he calls Pascalian Constraints. These constraints, which he refers to as the

(1) Wide Accessibility Principle

and the

(2) Easy Resistibility Principle

are what I note down below.

“If we assume that God exists and has created human persons so that they can enjoy a relationship with God, then it is surely reasonable to assume that a knowledge of God would be possible for humans and that the grounds of that knowledge of God would be generally accessible. One would not think that the knowledge of God would require great philosophical learning or scientific sophistication; it would be exceedingly odd if someone had to be a theoretical physicist or have a PhD in philosophy in order to come to know God. Rather one would expect that a knowledge of God would be generally available to ordinary people. If there is evidence of God’s reality, we would expect that evidence to be fairly pervasive and easy to recognize. I call the claim that evidence for God would be widely available the “Wide Accessibility Principle.”

However, Christian theology has generally assumed that God desires humans not just to have a relationship with him but to have a relationship of a certain kind. God desires humans to serve him freely, motivated by love of God’s goodness, not out of coercion or fear. Given God’s omnipotence and omniscience, if God’s reality were too obvious it would create difficulties for this goal, for it would be the height of foolishness for even a self-centered being to oppose a being who is omnipotent and omniscient.

…

It thus seems plausible to assume that, though the evidence for God would be widely available and easily accessible, it would also be the kind of evidence that a person who wished to do so could dismiss or reject. We might thus expect the evidence to have a degree of ambiguity, to be such that it could be reinterpreted or explained away by those who do not wish to believe in God, or who perhaps have been taught to think this way by those who do not believe in God. The evidence would then be easily resistible, even though widely available, and I call this second constraint on the evidence for God the quote “Easy Resistibility Principle.”

Pgs. 24-25

~ Evans then goes on to quote Blaise Pascal’s Pensees. He sees the above two principles in Pascal’s Pensees. I will jot the Pensees from where Evans sources and formulates the above constraints.

“If He had wished to overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened, He could have done so by revealing Himself to them so plainly that they could not doubt the truth of His essence, as He will appear on the last day with such thunder and lightning and such convulsions of nature that the dead will rise up and the blindest will see Him.

This is not the way He wished to appear when He came in mildness, because so many men had shown themselves unworthy of His clemency, that He wished to deprive them of the good they did not desire. It was therefore not right that He should appear in a manner manifestly divine and absolutely capable of convincing all men, but neither was it right that His coming should be so hidden that He could not be recognized by those who sincerely sought Him. He wished to make Himself perfectly recognizable to them. Thus wishing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their heart and hidden from those who shun Him with all their heart, He has qualified our knowledge of Him by giving signs which can be seen by those who seek Him and not by those who do not.

‘There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition.’”

From Pensée 430 in Blaise Pascal, Pensées (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958), 118.

More on all this that I will be following up on:

• The Evidence for God is Widely Available and Easily Resistible by philosopher Paul Gould
• Book Review: C. Stephen Evans on Why Christian Faith Still Makes Sense by Jeremy Rios at his blog, Mustard Seed Faith