 The mathematical theories of probability and decision emerged together in correspondence between Blaise Pascale and Pierre de Fermat in the mid-17th Century. Pascal went on to apply them to theological questions, developing his famous “wager” argument  (see entry on Pascal’s Wager)  for belief in God. Probability theory now commonly appears in discussions of other arguments for and against theism, especially the argument from design. Though Darwin is generally thought to have toppled theistic appeals to biological design, newer findings in cosmology and physics seem to support a new probabilistic argument for God’s existence.