Gambling on the Gods

Born in France in 1623, Blaise Pascal’s intellectual prowess was evident early. He was writing about projective geometry and laying the groundwork for probability theory in his teens, and by his early twenties had built a calculating machine (the Pascaline) to help his father do his taxes.

When he hit his thirties, he had a religious experience that turned his attention towards theology and philosophy. He began writing an examination and defence of the Christian faith. However, he had struggled with his health for many years and passed away at 39, before finishing this project. After his death, other’s pieced it together and posthumously published it as Pensées, French for ‘Thoughts’.

Let’s consider the costs:

From this perspective, any rational person should place their bet on God.

However, it didn’t take long for people to chime in with criticisms. One issue is that betting on God isn’t as simple as placing the bet and going back to life as usual — you have to drastically change your lifestyle, go to Church, abstain from sex before marriage, and so forth. The costs of this bet aren’t exactly negligible.

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