h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Eris of Discordia?

Well - depends who you are - as I hinted in the concluding sector, a strong atheist would say the chances are zero, an agnostic might give her chances as low, a discordian as high, a devout christian as zero, and a wavery christian as low.

So it depends who you are, like all these things...

If i give all gods an equal
chance then which one would it
be wise to wager on?
Possably the one how gave the
greatest rewards for the lest
effort?

Hmm - I'd go for agnosticism or athiesm, on the basis, as in the article, that most relgions come down rather harder on false gods than on agnostics...

Some religions (xtianity) prefer atheists to agnostics - some vica versa - I'm not sure what the safest option of the two would be when averaged...

Pascal's Wager is faulty indeed, in supposing it only matters wether you believe in the Christian God or not. The Christian God punishes all how believe in other gods, he wants his followers to be devote to only him. This goes for a lot of other gods, so I suppose the safest way to go is to go with the religion that claims the worst punishment if you don't believe in it.

I'll elaborate: Let's say there were 2 gods. If you believe One exists, you get OneHeaven if he (or she, but let's not get into that one) exists or nothing if he doesn't. If you don't believe One exists and he does you get OneHell, which is a level 1 hell.

Then Two: Believe he exists, you get TwoHeaven if he does or nothing if he doesn't. If yoo don't believe it and he does still, you get TwoHell, which is a level 2 hell.

Since the hell of Two is worse than the hell of One, you are better off picking Two as a religion. Which heaven you get doesn't matter all that much, they're both pretty ok. But there are three choices (One, Two, or Not) and three outcomes.

Choice One, Outcome One: OneHeaven
Choice One, Outcome Two: TwoHell
Choice One, Outcome Not: nothing
Choice Two, Outcome One: OneHell
Choice Two, Outcome Two: TwoHeaven
Choice Two, Outcome Not: nothing
Choice Not, Outcome One: OneHell
Choice Not, Outcome Two: TwoHell
Choice Not, Outcome Not: nothing

So you see, picking Two as your deity yields the best average result: some heaven or a mix of the lesser hells. This also works for more than 2 deities and our world has a gazillion of them, so do the math!

I think I'll start working on a religion with the worst possible hell, it should be a killer success!

I sign up to your religion

hey! recruit your disciples off your own entry!