For millennia, human beings have been making all kinds of arguments for the existence of God, deities, or any spiritual being/reality beyond the material world. One of the most unusual of these arguments is the one made by French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), which came to be known as Pascal’s Wager. It is not based on a logical, epistemological, scriptural, or experiential evidence but on probability: if you believe in God and live accordingly, and it turns out to be true, you win infinite rewards. If it turns out to be false, you lose relatively little—some restrictions on your daily life, but you can still live a happy fulfilling life. If you don’t believe, and it turns out that there is God, you risk losing too much, e.g. eternal damnation in Hell!
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From “the world’s ugliest woman” to one of the world’s most inspiring examples
Lizzie Velasquez, who speaks in the video above, is a writer and a motivational speaker. She was born with a very rare genetic condition that makes her unable to gain weight no matter how much she eats. She has never weighed more than 28 kg, and this makes her look very “ugly.” She narrates in this video (8:30) the pain and emotional trauma she experienced when she found out—as she was still in high school—that someone had posted a video of her on YouTube describing her as “the world’s ugliest woman.” One of the commentators told her: “Lizzie, please, please just do the world a favor, put a gun to your head, and kill yourself!”
She, however, never allowed herself to be imprisoned in the image the people wanted to impose on her. Instead of hiding behind closed doors, she decided to become a motivational speaker and confront people face to face. She also wanted to become a writer and now she is about to publish her third book at the age 24. I strongly recommend that you watch this video, which is not only about her story, and not only about “beauty” and “ugliness”, but also about how to define yourself as a person instead of letting other people define you.
Religion, Culture, Society 