By my reckoning, depending on which probabilities you use, and how pissed off the "correct god" would be if you worshipped the wrong god, the dominate strategies become "Don't Believe, just to be safe" rather than "Believe, just to be safe".
chugchug,all.
2007-12-07 04:43:48 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
JP, you can also construct as the following:
Player's choice is Believe/Don't Believe
Deity in question is either Exist/Not Exist
If the deity exists and you Believe, you are rewarded with R
If deity doesn't exist, and you Believe, another god punishes you with -R
If deity exists and you don't believe, you're punished with -R
If deity doesn't exist, and you don't believe, your payoff is 0.
Under this form, as soon as you have three possible deities, all with equal probability, the equilibria change.
2007-12-07 04:53:09 · update #1
Vishal, under certain utility functions you can construct a scenario in which you're right.
2007-12-07 04:54:23 · update #2
Yes.
Try computing Pascal's Wager with the following:
1.) There is no deity.
2.) Jesus is the deity, and rewards only Christians.
3.) Bob is the Deity, and rewards everyone BUT Christians.
You'll find the Nash equilibrium actually favors Bob, not Jesus.
2007-12-07 04:47:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 8⤊ 0⤋
That's assuming that all of your religions worship separate and jealous gods. In Christianity, Judaism and Islam, for example, everyone worships the same god in different ways. You can set up the problem in many different ways which change the ideal strategy. This is what has kept so many political scientists, economists and mathematicians so intrigued all these years.
2007-12-07 12:48:50 · answer #2 · answered by TG 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I believe not, as long as the correct God still provides an infinite reward and has a non-zero probability of existing.
I'm not sure though, as it's been a few years since I learned game theory...
2007-12-07 12:52:32 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
either that, or you should follow them all, just to be safe.
the whole idea of being "safe" from God is flawed to begin with. Good God > Evil God and God by definition is the greatest being. therefore Evil God cannot exist in any form. ESPECIALLY the form which requires you to spend eternity in hell.
2007-12-07 12:49:56 · answer #4 · answered by nacsez 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
How about this. Be a good person, and hope whatever God there is doesn't condemn you for not believing in Him.
You have a much better chance of acting without belief than belief without actions.
2007-12-07 12:47:56 · answer #5 · answered by Free Thinker A.R.T. ††† 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Technically I think the correct position is all the positions. If you are just honest with yourself, no matter what you believe you'll have the best chance.
2007-12-07 12:49:12 · answer #6 · answered by Tony AM 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If only people knew that we were meant to worship Oberon, king of the fairies, all along...we ignored the prophet Shakespeare, we ridicule his words...and, for that, we will spend eternity in Hell, with Puck...
Oh, if only we had known...
2007-12-07 12:50:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Or you must believe all punishment based religions just to be sure.
2007-12-07 12:49:00 · answer #8 · answered by Rev. Still Monkeys 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You're just trying to make their brains explode, aren't you?
2007-12-07 12:48:44 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
Fear is not the reason to Believe. Love is.
2007-12-07 12:47:55 · answer #10 · answered by Kara J 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋