A Return To Pascals Wager

[cronus]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

Diamonds tend to be rare and difficult to mine and turn into jewels which is why they are rare. Any mentally deficient beast with working genitals can create life. If you wish to waste your life wanking a camel for diamonds just in case, so be it, but don't start complaining when people laugh at the mad camel wanker.

I'm not sure you gain nothing. Numerous health benefits by slowing your life down with harmless mental masturbation have been documented for religious folks.

[laklak]

We hear all about Pascal's Wager, but what about Pascal's Wiener? Why did he wag it about, anyway?

[Audley Strange]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

Diamonds tend to be rare and difficult to mine and turn into jewels which is why they are rare. Any mentally deficient beast with working genitals can create life. If you wish to waste your life wanking a camel for diamonds just in case, so be it, but don't start complaining when people laugh at the mad camel wanker.

I'm not sure you gain nothing. Numerous health benefits by slowing your life down with harmless mental masturbation have been documented for religious folks.

And I'm sure being drenched in camel semen would mean your skin was probably healthy and you'd be swallowing some extra protein, but you'd still be a mad camel wanker.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

Diamonds tend to be rare and difficult to mine and turn into jewels which is why they are rare. Any mentally deficient beast with working genitals can create life. If you wish to waste your life wanking a camel for diamonds just in case, so be it, but don't start complaining when people laugh at the mad camel wanker.

I'm not sure you gain nothing. Numerous health benefits by slowing your life down with harmless mental masturbation have been documented for religious folks.

I'm always a little dubious about such claims. How were control groups drawn up? What other differences (apart from belief or non-belief) were there between the groups? Where are the papers and the peer-review that goes with them?

Most such claims appear to be anecdotal articals in the Daily Fail and the like.

[cronus]

Needless the mortality edge in this life if you get yourself a second (or more) by edging the blind bet for the big win?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Needless the mortality edge in this life if you get yourself a second (or more) by edging the blind bet for the big win?

You're still missing the elephant in the room.

There is no major religion in which simply believing in some vague concept of god is enough for "salvation" (or whatever else they promise, favourable reincarnation, etc.) In all religions there are a list of other conditions to be complied with, chief among which is almost always not worshipping false gods. In many cases, this even extends to not worshipping the right god in the wrong way - ie. catlick/prod or sunni/shite.

So you can't simply believe that god exists and book your passage to how ever many virgins are waiting for the righteous. You have to choose the correct path out of hundreds and each of those paths, except for (a maximum of) one, is a waste of time that will leave you just as everlastingly fucked as spending all your prayer time indulging in cocaine and whores.

ANd then there are those religions where only people of the correct racial mix can go to heaven. And those where the names of the saved are already inscribed in a big, gold book up in heaven - no amount of wagering is going to help you there!

Of course, the "real" god might only care that you believe in its almighty selfishness and nothing more - but, if so, he never bothered inspiring any prophets to write a book about that fact!



Pascal's wager is a huge steaming pile of wank. Always has been. It's there to trick the easily gulled that want just enough of a reason to believe to get by. Pascal himself was a fascinating man. He achieved great things in the realms of science and mathematics before the age of 30 - including pretty much inventing probability theory and building the world's first calculator (in the 1600s!) - and then wasted the rest of his life on bollocks such as that!

[Hermit]

Worse still is the putative God of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to that sect exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to heaven, and no more. Not only that, but most of those are already there. Makes winning the first prize in lotto a more likely outcome among the 7 billion people currently alive than snatching one of the remaining celestial prayer benches.

Even worse than that, there are those sects that proclaim that salvation - or the lack of it - is a matter of predestination. In other words, it doesn't matter what you do or believe; your fate has been decided before you were even born. In that case the chances of winning Pascal's Wager are exactly zero.

[cronus]

I'd not be too bothered by the 144,000 concept if I was to be one of them. Not like I know that many people worth taking with me.

[Hermit]

I'd not be too bothered by the 144,000 concept if I was to be one of them. Not like I know that many people worth taking with me.

Sounds like you'd be betting on what in Australian parlance among gamblers at race courses is called "a dead cert".

[Animavore]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

Diamonds tend to be rare and difficult to mine and turn into jewels which is why they are rare. Any mentally deficient beast with working genitals can create life. If you wish to waste your life wanking a camel for diamonds just in case, so be it, but don't start complaining when people laugh at the mad camel wanker.

I'm not sure you gain nothing. Numerous health benefits by slowing your life down with harmless mental masturbation have been documented for religious folks.

I'm always a little dubious about such claims. How were control groups drawn up? What other differences (apart from belief or non-belief) were there between the groups? Where are the papers and the peer-review that goes with them?

Most such claims appear to be anecdotal articals in the Daily Fail and the like.

Many did find the claims dubious and, if I recall, upon further studies it turned out many regular social activities provide similar benefits like being on a bowling team and the like.

It wasn't the religion in itself which provided benefit. It was socialising, being active and not being a miserable loner which did.

[rainbow]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

In my view, with Pascal's wager you gain precisely zero by believing.

That depends on whether God wants you to believe.

[rainbow]

Worse still is the putative God of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to that sect exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to heaven, and no more. Not only that, but most of those are already there. Makes winning the first prize in lotto a more likely outcome among the 7 billion people currently alive than snatching one of the remaining celestial prayer benches.

Even worse than that, there are those sects that proclaim that salvation - or the lack of it - is a matter of predestination. In other words, it doesn't matter what you do or believe; your fate has been decided before you were even born. In that case the chances of winning Pascal's Wager are exactly zero.

There is also the possibility that all religions might not be in fact entirely correct.

[Hermit]

Worse still is the putative God of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to that sect exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to heaven, and no more. Not only that, but most of those are already there. Makes winning the first prize in lotto a more likely outcome among the 7 billion people currently alive than snatching one of the remaining celestial prayer benches.

Even worse than that, there are those sects that proclaim that salvation - or the lack of it - is a matter of predestination. In other words, it doesn't matter what you do or believe; your fate has been decided before you were even born. In that case the chances of winning Pascal's Wager are exactly zero.

There is also the possibility that all religions might not be in fact entirely correct.

Wow!

[Cormac]

Given that life is exactly such a diamond and I only have one then why not place stakes on a split deal with random takings should I win rather than a straight that'll either leave me with nothing after the game or a winning deal I can't handle on account of false expectations low or high?

In my view, with Pascal's wager you gain precisely zero by believing.

That depends on whether God wants you to believe.

[pedantry] whether...or not[/pedantry]

I've not yet heard of a god that didn't want people to believe.

[Hermit]

I've not yet heard of a god that didn't want people to believe.

[pedantry]I've not yet heard of people that didn't want you to believe in their putative god.[/pedantry]