The utilitarian case for Easter

Made-up symbolic gestures and holidays like Earth Hour don't have the same pizzazz as Easter

The question: Should we observe Easter or Earth Hour?

Easter has never been about improving or "redeeming" the world – it is about escaping the world; in particular, escaping death. Christ's resurrection and ascension are supposed to prefigure a more general resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come for us, as noted in the Nicene creed.

There is, of course, no compelling evidence for postmortem survival. Postmortem survival, however, is logically possible. That is to say, it doesn't imply a contradiction in the way that claims about the existence of married bachelors or round squares do. And even given the bare logical possibility of survival, arguably, it's worth believing – if you can manage it.

Consider this variant on Pascal's Wager. Suppose you believe that you will survive bodily death and enjoy a blissful afterlife. If you're right, that's wonderful. If you're wrong, you won't be disappointed because you will die dead and never discover that you were mistaken. Moreover, if you can conjure up a solid belief in a blissful afterlife you will be less worried about death in this life.

On the other hand, suppose you don't believe. If you're wrong you'll be pleasantly surprised – but you will have wasted a great deal of time in this life pointlessly fearing death, so you'll be worse off than you would be if you had believed. If you're right, however, you won't be any better off because you won't even get the satisfaction of discovering that you were right.

So it seems that a rational person, aiming to maximise his own utility, will do what he can to pump up belief in a blissful afterlife.

Now when I say things like this people are aghast. What kind of philosopher are you anyway, they ask. I thought you guys were supposed to be questing for Truth.

I'm not so sure about that. There are lots of truths in which I have no interest – for example, truths about the US tax laws and truths about the life cycle of the termite. None of these boring truths interest me in the least, and I don't see why they should.

There are other truths that are not merely boring but downright unpleasant – for example truths about starving children, about poverty, disease and suffering. There's not much I can do about these depressing truths, and I see no reason why I should bother with them. I contribute what I believe is an appropriate amount of money to various charities. I don't think that learning more about human misery would make me likely to increase my contributions, so I see no reason to seek out any more of these truths.

And I can't do anything about death or taxes, so I see no reason why I should seek the truth about them either.

Easter is a celebration of Christ's resurrection and our own. I'm happy to take the leap of faith on these matters.

Easter also provides a number of this-worldly perks: elaborate church services with great music, holiday dinners, Easter eggs and a whole host of happy traditions. Made-up holidays and symbolic gestures like Earth Hour, Black History Month and World Poetry Day just don't have the same pizzazz.

Maybe Earth Hour will mellow over time and pick up pleasant customs and cultural practices. In any case, I'm all for recycling and saving the earth. I would have turned my lights off last week if I'd known about it. But religion is concerned with the supernatural and the other world – if there is one. When it comes to improving this world, science, technology and secular ethics are precisely what we should trust.