Veritas believes in waking the dead. We want to honor the men who have lived their lives to serve Christ, and in so doing, have transformed history. They may have lived (and died) long ago, but their legacy remains today.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

It takes nothing short of a child prodigy to invent the calculator at age 16, discover the mathematical theory of relativity, and make serious contributions to number theory and geometry. But that’s exactly what Blaise Pascal did. (Some would say he was born a genius; we tend to credit it to the fact that he was home schooled.)

When his father fell ill, Pascal became involved with a religious movement in France. After his father’s death, Pascal turned away from religious interests—spending his time with gamblers, womanizers, and free thinkers. But on the night of November 23, 1654, Pascal was thrown into the roadway when his horses bolted and plunged off a bridge. He saw this as a warning directly from God. That night, he experienced a Christian conversion that would cause his scientific work to take a backseat.

Pascal went on to propose his famous “Pascal’s Wager” to show that it is reasonable to believe in God. Either God exists or he does not, Pascal said, and we cannot use reason to determine which alternative is true. But both our present and our future lives may be affected by the alternative we choose. Since choosing to believe that God exists may lead to eternal life and happiness, and nothing is lost if we are wrong about the other choice, it is better to believe in God.

If you think he’s wrong, consider this question: Did you invent the calculator when you were 16?

Here's an excerpt from Pascal's Pensees, published eight years after his death in 1662:

We know God only by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator, all communion with God is taken away; through Jesus Christ we know God. All those who have claimed to know God, and to prove Him without Jesus Christ, have had only weak proofs. But in proof of Jesus Christ we have the prophecies, which are solid and palpable proofs. And these prophecies, being accomplished and proved true by the event, mark the certainty of these truths and, therefore, the divinity of Christ. In Him, then, and through Him, we know God. Apart from Him, and without the Scripture, without original sin, without a necessary mediator promised and come, we cannot absolutely prove God, nor teach right doctrine and right morality. But through Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ, we prove God, and teach morality and doctrine. Jesus Christ is, then, the true God of men.

But we know at the same time our wretchedness; for this God is none other than the Saviour of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities. Therefore those who have known God, without knowing their wretchedness, have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.