Pascal Roulette
Photo by Ralf Roletschek – Fahrradtechnik und Fotografie. CC BY-SA 3.0
A couple of weeks ago, someone very dear to me posted this, after scuffling with me a bit over my non-belief:
I too have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and believe it is better to believe than not to believe. If I am wrong in my belief, I have lost nothing, If I am right, I have gained a whole lot more. I would rather think I am right in my belief than take my chances. Something to really think about. Eternity is real and the older I get, I know that I am faced with this eternal fact.
Good ol’ Pascal’s wager.’Tis better to believe and be wrong, than to disbelieve and be wrong.
Let’s stipulate for the moment that my atheism is a completely uninformed choice, and I am leaving my eternity completely up to chance. Under that stipulation, Pascal’s Wager is absolutely correct about me. I’m making a choice, like choosing black over red at the roulette table. The odds of me being right are 2:1.
But that is not the wager a Christian is making. He’s putting everything on a specific number. His odds are closer to 37:1 against him being right, and probably a great deal worse, if you consider the diversity of belief since the dawn of recorded history.
It's no secret that Roulette is all about odds, house edges, and statistics. So it should come as no surprise that the Roulette wheel was actually invented by Blaise Pascal, a French physicist, inventor, and mathematician. But Pascal wasn't trying to invent a casino game. In 1655, Pascal tried to invent a perpetual motion machine.
- The roulette cylinder was introduced in a primitive form, in the 17th century, by Blaise Pascal, a French physicist, philosopher and inventor, in his quest to create for a perpetual motion machine. The game of roulette as we know it today started being played a century later, around 1760, in France.
- The Roulette wheel as invented by Pascal remained the same for centuries. That all changed in 1842, when Francois and Lois Blanc designed a Roulette wheel with a single zero on it, specifically for King Charles III of Monaco.
Blaise Pascal Roulette Invention
My choice isn’t completely uninformed, of course. And like most non-believers, I’m willing to be proven wrong. I’m willing to change my bet, if a compelling argument can be made. If the wheel stops before such an argument can be made, so be it. I rather think making a definite choice, yes or no, is better than hedging and paying lip-service to a deity I don’t believe in.
Blaise Pascal Roulette
And I rather think the Christian deity, if he exists, would appreciate my thoughts on the matter:
Blaise Pascal Roulette Machine
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” – God, Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)