"Watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation." Mark 14:38
Amidst all the murder, theft, rape, genocide, incest, and hate-mongering, the Bible occasionally has some good suggestions, and I submit that this is one of them. If only he had left it at that. It is good to avoid temptation, and to live modestly and moderately in all things. It is good to weigh one's options and knowledge of a situation before taking the bait. But just like with "Thou shalt not murder," this one comes with some wiggle room.
Not surprisingly, the more the devout the Christian, the more things they consider temptations, and the more pleasures they forgo. The irony is that they have submitted to the greatest, and foulest, temptation of all. What is the prospect of Heaven but an elaborate temptation? What difference is there between that prospect and any Earthly pleasure? That's exactly what the Biblical descriptions of Paradise as a great feast, etc. are manufactured to invoke, and dangle before you. For one thing, Earthly pleasures are at least verifiably real. If a temptress comes to me and can't even demonstrate the truth of that with which she tempts me, why should I take the bait? What reason do we have to believe that God is true to his promises? If anything he has demonstrated nothing but the opposite. He's willing to forsake his own chosen people at the drop of a hat, so what makes you think you stand any better chance as a gentile?
If your answer has anything to do with an argument from anecdotal experience, about how good and merciful God is, I can offer you infinite others to the contrary, or in defense of the mercy of some other god if you like. But that's not the point. The point is that you're simple trading one temptation, one addiction, for another. If your answer is Pascal's Wager, then you've submitted not only to temptation, but to fear, which is an even worse reason for devotion. Fear does not equal truth, and even if it is true, I will gladly suffer in Hell for doing what is right before I am allowed to take pleasure in heaven for submission to evil and temptation. Would you do the unquestioned bidding of a tyrant simply because he threatens you with torture or goads you with rewards? Or would you see the thing for what it is? A trap.
One of a certain someone's favorite Bible verses comes from Paul, and goes a little further: "No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13
This is one of those rare occasions in which I, at least in principle, agree with the Tarsian. Within the human condition are troubles and temptations common to us all. There's not a religion on the planet that would claim otherwise. In fact, that's why we all managed to independently invent strikingly similar religions across the planet in the first place. Also common and inherently provided to us is the way of escape from such troubles. Like Paul says, we have encountered nothing that we cannot endure, except perhaps each other. But this is the end of my agreement with him. Is God faithful, or is Paul just saying that for the cash? I believe that way of escape to be reason. It has been reason which has lead us to solve the problems of survival, and to thrive, and it is reason alone that is both the rock on which our species stands, and the light by which we see. Again, I'm only willing to make this wager because at least the results and methods of reason are testable, verifiable, and antidogmatic, even with respect to themselves. Pascal cannot offer such a defense for his gamble, and neither can Paul hope to present his God as any less the tempter than his Satan. It's a trap.
But temptation is necessary, after all. Without temptation, there is no motivation, no effort, no capitalistic venturing, and no progress. And lest we forget, without temptation, there would be no nibble of knowledge, and more importantly, no continuation of our species or any other. Maybe some people like it that way. Indeed, maybe we would be better off had Cain not given to his temptation, or Yahweh to His.
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