Pascal's Wager = a straw man argument? The efficacy of his wager is contingent upon the concept, (Christian, and related), that if God exists it is assumed that the God grants humans with heaven/eternal life as a condition of belief yet ignores the fact that God could exist as merely a creator and yet there is not reward for belief.
But there are still femtocephalics in the world who regard Pascal's Wager as a good reason to believe in the Christian God.
(And I feel very sorry for His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, PBUH.)
Why all this emphasis on Pascal’s pub game, just right for erudite C17th folks to discuss on a winter’s night around a fire at a local hostelry.
What about his real work? Inventor of a calculating machine, the syringe, work in hydrodynamics, Pascal’s Triangle, successfully disputed Aristotle’s theory of vacuums, a renowned satirical French author.
I did not know that of him. Thank you for enlightening me.
Pascal's Wager could be seen as a straw man, but it is frankly so inept that is hardy qualifies as a logical fallacy at all.
As pointed out it is based upon presupersition, but is also reliant upon the idea that it should only be applied to the Christian god, when in fact the premise works equally well for any god or deity offering an afterlife or Parousia as a reward for a "virtuous" or "Sin" free life.
For Pascal's wager to work, one would have to accept the entire pantheon of deity, known and unknown, and pledge allegiance to all of them in the hope of being forgiven by the right one for your eclectic fidelity and rewarded accordingly.