A Wager on Death

Blaise Pascal reflected that humanity is obsessed with divertissement, that is, diversions. By embracing noise and pleasure, we avoid thinking about anything that may be associated with aging, dying, or our final end. But what if our determination to avoid these thoughts means that we are consigning ourselves to living an aimless life? Best-selling author Vittorio Messori invites you to explore this and other aspects of Pascal’s Wager in a compelling, conversational way. In these soul-stirring pages, you will find that death isn’t simply an individual concern but a collective one. Society’s continual advancements in technology and rising political hostilities make the possibility of nuclear apocalypse and other mass extinction events ever more real. Modern culture, however, seems fascinated with death only in entertainment. For death in reality, it relies on euphemisms and escapism rather than direct, honest engagement with the problems of sin, suffering, and grief. Through thought-pro